Pre-Season Friendly - Tuesday 11th July 2023, 3:00 p.m. kick-off

Evesham United 1 (1) Bromsgrove Sporting 1 (0) at The Spiers & Hartwell Stadium

Last Tuesday evening, Sporting made the short trip down the road to fellow Worcestershire outfit, Evesham United in their third pre-season friendly, earning a draw on their travels.

The home side started stronger putting the Bromsgrove defence under immediate pressure and gained a big advantage with five minutes gone when Aaron Roberts bundled over Alfie Dunn just inside the box. Amer Awadh converted the spot kick sending Ollie Taylor in the Sporting goal, the wrong way.

The Robins gained another penalty ten minutes later when again Roberts infringed. This time Taylor guessed corrected diving to his right and steering the ball out for a corner.

The Rouslers may have had a penalty themselves 10 minutes later when one of the trialists appeared to be fouled but the referee waved his arms dramatically to indicate that he saw no offence.

As the half went on Sporting began to get more in the game with Conor Rees in particularly playing well with some neat passing and making it difficult to mark him as he wandered regularly across the width of the pitch.

Both teams began the second half with the same players but as the period progressed a number of substitutions were made that strengthened the Sporting line-up. As a result, Evesham spent much of the half defending and to be fair they did their job well though at the cost of a number of free kicks.

Sporting finally got the equaliser on 71 minutes and another penalty when the useful Callum King-Harmes was tripped. Rees took the kick and made no mistake firing hard into the middle right of the net giving keeper Lewis Adams no chance.

By rights, Sporting should have had at least a couple of goals from open play but for a well-organised home back four and several wayward shots. Substitute Keiron Berry had a couple of decent chances but it was player/manager Mike McGrath playing the whole 90 minutes who forced Adams into a first-class save following his long-range drive with just one minute to go.

At the end the score remained all square and had it been a competitive match, The Rouslers would have been disappointed not to get a win but it was a friendly and both sides will be content with some useful performances.

Sporting line-up: Ollie Taylor, Aaron Roberts (Tom Taylor 73 mins), Luke Rowe, David Solademi (Dan Preston 63 mins), Mike McGrath, Callum King-Harmes (David McQuaide 78 mins), Keanu Cooper (Jack Newell 61 mins), Trialist 1 (Trialist 3 82 mins), Conor Tee (Blake Kindred 78 mins), Billy Shaw (Sirus Warren-Paul 61 mins), Trialist 2 (Keiron Berry 65 mins).

Crowd: ~ 150