MARKETMEN START EASTER WEEKEND WITH A WIN

Needham Market returned to winning ways with a 1-0 win over Bromsgrove Sporting, jumping up a place into eighth.

Tom Rothery named an unchanged team from last Saturday's trip to Worcester City, with the only alteration seeing Reggie Lambe return to tghe bench in place of Reserves defender Brad Smith.

In truth there was very little clear cut chances between the two teams, though the Marketmen enjoyed the majority of the possession in windy conditions.

George Wynne's (3') shot from the left-hand edge of the box was headed away by Keiran Morphew, with James Bradbrook forced to claim two long balls expertly.

Home debutant Marcel Lewis however broke the deadlock (14'), after Kyle Hammond was pushed to the ground from just shy of 30-yards out, curling a sensational free-kick into the top left-hand corner, via the crossbar, to open his Needham account.

Bromsgrove (23') flashed a dangerous right wing free-kick wide of the far post, while Joe Neal was fed through onto the right-hand side only to fire wide into the side-netting (28').

After the break, goalscorer Lewis slid Myles Cowling through in the area, one on one with Brown, although the ball overran to the sliding keeper to gather around his six yard box (56').

Brilliant football forced Brown into a good stop (66'), an excellent reverse pass from Lewis threaded through Neal, which the striker's close range shot was smothered over by the keeper.

Neal then looped a long range free-kick goal-wards, but straight into Brown's gloves (67'), as Hammond (68') was deemed offside as his low left-hand cutback was collected by Brown.

Seth Chambers and Ollie Saunders (73') replaced Joe Neal and Marcel Lewis, as smart football from the Marketmen (81') saw Ingram thread Tommy Smith through onto the left-hand side whose good squared ball across was cleared.

Chambers (82') drove a low shot narrowly wide, as Bradbrook (92') collected Softley's header from Brown's long distance free-kick.

Post Match Interview https://youtu.be/GQk2cfhhJM0?si=JQngGc0ebONo7iFK