Rugeley II 1, Pershore II 1

AFTER dominating the first half of this DTZ League fixture Pershore threw away their lead to give Rugeley their first point of the season.

With a strong midfield centred around new signing Brett Pittam, Pershore pinned Rugeley into their own half for the early stages of this game and looked set to run riot when Matt Hughes scored his first goal for the club with a fine solo effort after ten minutes.

However, they failed to convert their possession into further goals and the second period witnessed a different story with Rugeley battling hard to win the 50/50 balls and Pershore's passing going astray when they did win possession.

As the game wore on Pershore's play became increasingly ragged and, with Rugeley gaining in confidence, the equaliser inevitably came when they caught the visitors on the break.

With both defences holding the line for the last quarter the game petered out into a draw.

Sunday's rearranged league game at Kynoch completed a disappointing weekend for Pershore with only one point collected from six.

The match began in controversial circumstances with the Birmingham pitch still suffering the effects of the recent heavy rain and there being some doubt over its fitness.

With both sides battling hard, scoring chances were few and the real hero was Pershore's stand-in goalkeeper Gareth Rushton who made a number of impressive clearances.

The winning goal came midway into the second half when a goalmouth scramble teed a Kynoch player up with a simple finish from close range.

The last quarter saw the game's best hockey with Pershore putting together a number of good attacking moves in search of an equaliser and Kynoch responding with use of the long ball which was effectively marshalled by defensive lynchpin Tony Grove.