Hellenic League Division One West

Tytherington Rocks 0 Letcombe 1

TWO slip-ups led to another frustrating defeat for Tytherington Rocks on Saturday in their bottom of the table clash with Letcombe in the Hellenic League Division West game on the Hardwicke Field, Tytherington.

The first ten minutes of the game was littered with fouls as both teams battled to stamp their authority on this crucial match. Several early sorties by the Rocks forwards went unrewarded, with the most promising effort on 17 minutes from Callum Francis when he whistled wide of the Letcombe goal.

For the first 20 minutes, Tytherington held the balance of play until a crucial stumble by Rob Perry let Letcombe’s Jordan Davies through on the home goal for a clinical finish to open the scoring for the visitors.

Despite the setback, Tytherington continued to attack, without success, and attack with confidence with the result that it was almost half-time before the visitors had their first corner of the game.

Both teams had the chance of attacking free-kicks before half-time, with the Rocks effort in front of goal sailed high and wide to bring the half to a close.

The home team continued where they had left off with corners and pressure on the Letcombe defence but still without troubling the visiting keeper.

On 62 minutes, Francis was upended in the penalty area but the spot kick from Luke Whittam sailed very high and very wide.

Undaunted, Rocks maintained their defensive solidity with Dan McNally, Ollie Price and Jordan Connolly working as hard as ever.

Midway through the half, Pat Boyd replaced Francis followed shortly by Sven Hopes, on for Jordan Connolly.

The last 15 minutes saw Tytherington pressing forward, showing glimpses of good football but with no end product. A promising free kick on 85 minutes sailed wide of the Letcombe goal reflecting the frustration once again for the team that has been in with a serious chance of points in almost every game that they have played so far this season.

Letcombe produced a final run on goal for a real opportunity to double their score but the chance was missed.

In the end, the one penalty goal proved sufficient to lift the visitors off the bottom of the table whilst Rocks need to maintain their positive spirit for another key game on Saturday, this time away to high flying Hook Norton (kick-off 3pm).

Tytherington Rocks next home game is on Saturday October 1 when they will entertain Fairford Town (kick-off 3pm).