Halesowen Town 0 Nuneaton Town 2

Saturday 26th September, 2015;

Match report courtesy of Nuneaton News;

Nuneaton Town booked their place in the FA Cup Third Qualifying Round draw as they eased to a somewhat comfortable win against Halesowen.

In a game that could never be described a classic, the Boro did enough in the second half to see-off the lower league Yeltz, and maybe start a cup run.

In a first half void of any real excitement it was the Boro that managed to carve out the best of the openings that did come about.
James Reid could, and maybe should, have given them the lead inside the opening ten minutes, but his fantastic run into the box was not rewarded with a shot of equal quality as the wing-back fired it past Matt Sargeant but also past the far post.

The only other chance of note did result in a goal, but a disallowed one, as Aaron Williams chased in a spilled shot from Elliott Whitehouse and poked it home, only for the assistant on the far side to rule it out for offside.

Halesowen came back into things after that as the first half petered out in a flurry of midfield malaise.

The second half looked like it was going down the same route as the opening ten minutes were equally uninspiring from a spectators point of view.

All that changed, though, in a crazy five minute spell as the home side came so close to breaking the deadlock – only for the Boro to make them pay by doing just that up the other end.

The first chance saw Halesowen hit the woodwork as Greg Pearson smashed a shot out of nowhere on the edge of the box, the speed at which he took the effort caught Jordan Smith in the Boro goal unaware, luckily for him the woodwork was on-hand to keep the scores level, though.

Then, just a few minutes later, Nuneaton struck, as Aaron Williams continued his fine away-day scoring run, heading home a close range opener after Sargeant had denied him seconds earlier when he tried to turn home a James Clifton effort.

The goal came 27 minutes before the end of the match, but such was the level of control the Boro defence had over the home strike-force, the referee could have been forgiven for blowing up there and then.

It is a good job he didn’t, though, as the travelling Boro support would have missed out on a stunning second goal from Elliott Whitehouse. The midfield man getting his foot to a loose ball on the edge of the box and slamming it into the top right hand corner of the net.

NUNEATON TOWN: J.Smith, Clifton, Maguire, J.Keane, Lane, Reid, Morgan, Whitehouse, Byrne (Chettle 85), Harewood (Duffy 75), Williams.
Subs not used: Dyer, Daniels, C.Keane, R.Smith, Repsted.

HALESOWEN: Sargeant, Connolly, Griffiths (Cooper 75), Denny, Hull, Elvins, Charlton, Westwood (McGee 70), Refell, Pearson (Gueyes 70), Hales.
Subs not used: Bragoli , Morrison.

ATTENDANCE: 549.