On a cold Monday November night in the West Midlands, this match produced few highlights and Frome Town eventually lost 1-0 to a first half Redditch goal.
With Tim Stephenson arriving late at the ground, captain Bryan Smith moved into the heart of defence, which made a change from the previous Saturday when he started the match at centre forward in place of injured top scorer Ben Wood, who was again absent with injury and leaves the club with few options in the forward line. The match started with Frome having the first scoring opportunity in the 2nd minute as Aaron Ledgister whipped in a great freekick allowing Rhys Baggridge to head towards goal and bring a save from Sam Hornby.
Redditch had their first chance in the 11th minute as Ashley Sammonds drifted a freekick towards the edge of the Frome area, allowing Harvey Headley to turn and shoot, but the effort went well wide of the post. With the pitch leaving a little to be desired, both teams were struggling to control the ball at times, but then Frome put things together in the 15th minute as Matt Smith produced a lovely through ball to Brandon Mundy who beat two defenders only to see his shot gathered at the second attempt by Hornby.
After Redditch’s Sam Youngs had sent an effort inches wide from 20 yards out, Redditch took the lead in the 22nd minute as a free kick was not cleared and left back Joseph Ballinger poked the ball home from close range.
Frome were now struggling to put together any meaningful moves and the rest of the half revolved around the hosts looking to increase their lead, with Sammonds being denied by Darren Chitty after being set up by Headley, who himself had a header just wide a few minutes later. Edwin Ahenkorah hit the post with a shot after a mazy run and Chitty denied Headley with a low save just before half time.
Very little happened in the first 20 minutes of the second half, the first notable incident coming in the 68th minute as Sam Youngs chipped the ball just over the Frome bar, then Mark Cooper was felled just outside the Redditch area, but the free kick came to nothing.
Matt Smith probably came closest to breaking the deadlock for Frome as he hit a cross in the 79th minute that ended up heading towards the near post forcing Hornby to back pedal and tip the ball over the bar, but with chances few and far between it was Redditch who almost snatched a second right at the end, but Chitty was alert as ever to deny Sammonds.
So unfortunately Frome’s proud record of five successive away league victories couldn’t be extended to six.
Mark Cooper was awarded the “H&B Tyres Man of the Man Award”.
Frome Scorers: None. Redditch Scorers: Ballinger. Crowd: 112. Star Man: Mark Cooper. Entertainment Value: 2.
