Tenbury United 0 Gornal Athletic 4

UNBEATEN visitors Gornal Athletic provided stiff opposition for a determined Tenbury with the final scoreline in no way reflecting the closeness of a very competitive West Midlands League Division 1 South clash.

The visitors, relegated from the Premier Division last season, started with a bang and Tenbury were hard pressed to keep them out. They created a couple of good shooting chances and home goalkeeper Byron Davies made a string of top-class saves to keep his side in the game.

Tenbury adopted a more defensive formation to contain their lively opponents with young centre back Paul Higgins doing a good job to contain Gornal's prolific striker, and they gradually got themselves back into the game.

However, Gornal were not to be denied and with the break approaching opened the scoring from a free kick just outside the box. Davies parried the strong drive but it fell to a visiting forward who side-footed home from close range.

After the break, Tenbury made the early running and twice Johnny Welsh was denied by fine saves. In the last quarter Tenbury failed to clear and the ball was put back into the home box and swept in to extend the visitors lead. Throwing men forward, Tenbury were hit twice on the break by the wily Gornal who grabbed two late goals.

Manager Colin Powell remains optimistic and is looking to next week's visit to Leominster to get back to winning ways.