YELTZ FANS ENJOY IT ON TOP

Yeltz 2 Clevedon 0

06 October 2001

Another brilliant day. Two late goals from Jones and Giddings meant we jumped over Clevedon to lead the table . Followed by the excitement of the England game, it was quite a day.

Once again we kept a clean sheet. That's eight competitive games in a row now, definitely a record according to Chas who knows these sorts of things. There's a long way to go, but I don't think we could have hoped for a better start to the season.

Tuesday brings Sutton Coldfield - the only team to beat us this season so far - down to The Grove . Let's hope for another three points before the welcome distraction of Saturday's FA Cup tie against Canvey Island.

Match Report from DJ

Halesowen Town: Clarke; Colwell, Burnham, N. Smith, L. Collins, R. Collins, Hall, Jones, Giddings, Taylor, Hines. Subs: Spencer, Skidmore, L. Knight

Clevedon Town: Matthews; Lester, Thorne, Peters, Jeffries, Price, K. Knight, Callinan (Clode 59), Bayliss, Cook (Smart 79), Badman. Sub: King

Referee: A. Marriner (Birmingham) Attendance: 453

Halesowen marched to the top of the table in their seventh straight win at the Grove and set a club record of 750 minutes of football without conceding a goal.

The early 12.30 start produced a low-key start and both teams seemed to cancel each other out in the first half. Clevedon's Karl Bayliss drove wide in the first minute with the previous league leaders keen to shrug off the five goal mauling by Shepshed the week before. Andy Jones won a free kick on the edge of the area in the 4th minute but Les Hines hit the kick against the defensive wall. In the 18th minute the visitors dealt with a spell of home pressure with deep crosses from Richard Colwell and Hines. Tim Clarke saw Keith Knight's 20th minute free-kick late but made a good save from Tommy Callinan's low header. His opposite number Matthews collected Burnham's 25th minute cross at the second attempt.

Halesowen livened up after the break and Matty Hall's cross to Kerry Giddings almost caught out the Clevedon defence in the 46th minute. The turning point came in the 49th minute when Clarke dived full length to produce a superb fingertip save from Steve Lester's 20-yard drive. For Halesowen, Andy Jones turned and hit wide after 50 minutes and Giddings almost latched onto a weak back header from central defender Lee Jeffries, but Matthews raced off his line to clear. Giddings then battled through midfield allowing the influential Mark Taylor to set up Hines to shoot just over in the 65th minute.

Previous league leaders Clevedon missed a golden chance in the 75th minute when confusion between Clarke and Neil Smith allowed the ball to break to Karl Bayliss but he shot high with the goal at his mercy.

Just when Clevedon looked on course for a point, Halesowen crafted two late goals through the strike pair of Jones and Giddings. Ross Collins laid the ball off for Jason Burnham to cross in the 82nd minute and Jones poked the ball home from close range with Lee Collins also set to pounce. Two minutes later Jones broke free and set up fellow striker Giddings to sidestep his marker and crack home his seventh goal of the season from 20 yards into the bottom corner.