Pre-Season Friendly - Tuesday 4th July 2023, 7:45 p.m. kick-off

AFC Birmingham 1 (0) Bromsgrove Sporting 6 (2) at The Illey Lane Football Ground

For their first pre-season outing, Bromsgrove Sporting travelled up the road to Illey lane, just outside Halesowen to play Midland Football League Division Three outfit, AFC Birmingham.

It was a cool July evening with a fine drizzle coming down at the start of the game and after a break of just over two months, both teams seemed to be a little slow getting started. However the game started to liven up on the fifteen minute mark with Callum King-Harmes on the Bromsgrove right causing problems for the AFC defence supplying a string of unconverted crosses and a well-saved low shot on the 27th minute.

It was no surprise that the lively winger gave Sporting the lead two minutes later after receiving a useful pass from Luke Rowe then jigging through the home defence before placing a low shot into the net well beyond the keeper's reach.

Sporting doubled their lead just before halftime with a fast break up field that saw trialist 4 take the ball nearly half the length of the pitch before his shot was partially blocked by the Birmingham keeper only to see the ball slowly roll over the line.

With a decent crowd of well over 100 turning up, The Rouslers wasted no time increasing their lead early in the second half when Blake Kindred converted David McQuaide's cross on the 49th minute. Kindred then got a second 10 minutes later when he knocked in following a poor clearance.

Birmingham worked hard but had few chances. However they did get one back when a defensive misunderstanding in the Sporting box left Ollie Taylor stranded and their striker had an easy tap in.

Tris Dunkley scored number five after 65 minutes and AFC were unlucky to concede a sixth on the 78th minute when one of their defenders failed to get his hand down quickly enough and the referee awarded a penalty that McQuaide converted.

With legs tiring the pace of the game slowed down though credit to the home side who struck a fabulous free-kick from well outside the box with just one minute to go forcing Ollie Taylor into a good save diving low to his left.

Sporting line-up

First half: Ollie Taylor, trialist 1, trialist 2, Luke Rowe, Aaron Roberts, trialist 3, Callum King-Harmes, Keanu Cooper, trialist 4, Conor Tee, trialist 5.

Second half: Ollie Taylor, Jake Whitehouse, trialist 6, Mike McGrath, Tom Taylor, Blake Kindred, David McQuaide, Kartell Dawkins, trialist 7, Tris Dunkley, Billy Shaw.

Crowd:  160