Bromsgrove Sporting 4, Bloxwich United 2

UNDER strength Sporting had too much for Bloxwich as they progressed into the next round of the Endsleigh Challenge Cup on Saturday.

Both the Rouslers and their opponents were missing several regular players owing to injury or work commitments and it showed with the game played at a fairly sedate pace and never really hitting the excitement levels of recent matches.

Sporting had the best chances early on with Keith Draper curling a delightful shot just over the crossbar on the sixth minute while Bloxwich nearly put the ball in their own net three minutes later when Wayne Hayward's poor header was fumbled by keeper James Fryer, who just managed to stop the ball rolling into his own net.

Sporting did though take the lead on the 22nd minute, when Elliot Nash’s low cross/shot caught out Fryer who merely helped it into the net.

Draper and Jovan Blake-Walker, making his first start for Sporting, both came close while at the other end Adrian Jones had a good effort saved by Tom Savage.

Sporting increased their lead courtesy again of the lively Nash whose shot looked to be saved by Fryer only to see the ball dribble over the line.

To add to his misery, the hapless keeper also got a kick in the face and had to be substituted just before the interval.

Sporting continued their dominance playing up hill in the second half and got their third on 64 minutes. Aaron Roberts received a good pass out of defence from Nick Martin and with the Bloxwich defence on the other side of the pitch had plenty of space and time to advance down the left and beautifully side-foot into the net in the narrow gap between player and post.

Jon Rogers came off the bench when the impressive Nash went off with a hamstring injury and his first contribution to the match was Sporting's fourth goal when the Bloxwich defence failed to pick him up just inside the box and he had plenty of time to hit a shot wide of the keeper's left arm.

That was about the last we saw of Sporting on the attack. Consolidation was the order of the day from then onwards but Bloxwich were determined to make the scoreline look more respectable. Mark Wooldridge got one back for them on 76 minutes when he caught the Sporting back line knapping and with just Savage to beat fired home easily from 10 yards out.

The same Bloxwich forward got his team's second with a couple of minutes left on the clock in similar circumstances.

After the match, joint manager Keith Draper admitted it was not a brilliant performance particularly in the second half but they did get a good result and are now looking forward to meeting Lichfield City in the next round.

Sporting play Bloxwich again in a couple of week's time at their ground in the league match and with both teams likely to be at full strength, a more competitive match is in prospect.

Sporting: Savage; Fellows; Parker; Ross (Bright, 60); Martin; Harris; Draper Jnr; Turk (Lawley, 74); Blake-Walker; ROBERTS; Nash (Rogers, 64).

Subs not used: Myatt; Deehan.

Bloxwich: Fryer (Simkiss, 44); Coyne; Jones; Joyce; Hayward; Charters; Morris; Perry; Allen; Wooldridge; Mansfield.

Subs not used: Cooke; Freeman; Billingham; Justin Referee: J Whittington (Worcester). Attendance: 205