Tamworth Men's Firsts Vs Stafford

Tamworth recorded a 3-2 win in a pre-season friendly versus Stafford at home on Saturday.  With a number of key players missing the defence had to be re-shuffled and Tamworth made a bright start.  Ben Popple opened the scoring when he picked up the ball on the top of the D and wriggled away from his marker before hitting an unstoppable reverse stick strike into the top left corner.  This was the only goal of the first half as Stafford grew into the game and although Tamworth were guilty of running too much with the ball they took the slender lead in to the half time break.

In the second half both teams struggled to find any greater fluency but it was Tamworth who made the breakthrough when Jonny Shaw picked the ball up out wide on the right and after dribbling along the baseline he was able to pick out the smallest of gaps to beat the keeper at his near post.  Stafford then came back strongly and were rewarded when they reduced the deficit with a shot which deflected beyond Pipe.  The game continued to ebb and flow and it was Tamworth who restored the two goal advantage with Popple managing to create some space before striking low to the keeper’s right.  Stafford did score a consolation goal from a short corner and although Tamworth weren’t at their best it was good to start the pre-season with a win.