Lye Town 2 Cradley Town 4

THE celebrations that rocked the visitors’ dressing room at The Sports Ground on Saturday told their own story as the players of Cradley Town toasted an FA Vase victory that will have tasted doubly sweet, coming as it did against arch rivals Lye to cap a momentous week which saw Mark Jones’ men top the West Midland League, writes Max Hall.

If Cradley went into the match as nominal underdogs against Midland Football League outfit Lye, there was no obvious urgency among their management team, with manager Mark Jones attending his daughter’s 16th birthday party and owner-chairman Trevor Thomas tied up in Wales by work commitments to leave Cradley number two Steve Mole in charge for the day.

Such a relaxed approach appeared fully justified as Cradley’s Adam Meecham waltzed his team-mates into a two-goal lead inside eight minutes.

The first came from the unplayable forward with just 154 seconds on the clock, Meecham drifting past powder puff challenges from Lye central defenders Jack Pearlman and Dan Flowers before firing at keeper Jake Bedford and then tucking away the rebound into the unguarded net. Pearlman appeared to have recovered position on the line but unaccountably was unable to muster a clearing header.

If the defending was poor for that goal, it was shambolic for the second, also claimed by a delighted Meecham.

Pearlman and Flowers were playing like strangers and right-back Sam Tye – with experienced midfielder Scott Gennard in front of him – gave Cradley winger Scott Stevenson and the goalscorer the freedom of the right flank. Worst of all was the huge gap in the middle of the park which Ben Love and Ben Wilkins were supposed to be occupying for the hosts.

It came as no surprise when Stevenson was given all the time in the world to swing in an inviting cross from the left flank which saw Meecham rise above his negligent marker and plant home a header past the exposed Bedford.

Although the combination of Joel Cains and Simon Williams on Lye’s left-hand side was not as negligible as their counterparts there was only one player showing for the ball for Lye as target man James Spray played like a man surrounded by boys. The big forward tried to make something happen in the 16th minute when he dug out possession himself, from Cradley’s Darren Whitley near the left touchline, and ran from left to right before unleashing a dipping effort from distance that dropped onto the roof of Shaun Edwards’ goal.

But it was a rare highlight for Lye whose lacklustre defending should have been punished with a third goal minutes later. When the lively Jovan Blake-Walker mis-controlled the ball in Lye’s area his frustration was audible and he must have been amazed to be given the time to recover the ball, unmolested, two yards on and fire off a close range effort that was denied by Bedford, the only Lye player who reacted to the situation.

The forward was not to be denied for long and made it 3-0 on the half hour, firing across Bedford right to left after his initial effort was charged down by the home keeper as Lye’s defenders again stood and watched.

Gennard’s narrowly off-target attempt to lob Edwards after the Cradley keeper had rushed out of his area to head clear as Spray tried to find strike partner Tom Overfield was impressive but did nothing to paper over the cracks as half time approached.

Lye managers Martin Thomas and Darren Goodall had at least spotted the root of their team’s travails and unceremoniously hooked Love and Wilkins at the interval, bringing in Gennard from the right flank to add a physical presence alongside substitute Sam Beasley in the engine room and the double substitution – with forward Kevin Nickle also introduced – paid dividends immediately as Lye, improbably and belatedly, pinned their opponents back from the restart.

Gennard should have reduced the deficit within two minutes, snatching at his effort horribly with the goal gaping after Edwards pushed a rising drive from Overfield in his direction and there was an almighty scramble in the 58th minute as a low drive from Nickle was blocked and Williams’ follow-up was charged down by a combination of the keeper and Richard Thomas-Robinson.

Lye had their opponents on the rack but were undone in cruel fashion on the hour. Overfield sent a sumptuous free-kick from just outside the area over and around the three-man Cradley wall - in a foretaste of what was to come - and Edwards could only watch helplessly as it bounced back off his crossbar but, in the blink of an eye, the ball was at the feet of Blake-Walker at the other end and as Lye players and coaches appealed vainly for offside, the forward buried it under Bedford for a four-goal advantage.

That should have put the tin hat on things for Lye, even with referee Ben Watkiss showing his sympathy for their plight by awarding one of the softest penalties ever seen at Stourbridge Road, in the 70th minute. As Nickle chased down an over-hit through-ball that was always going to be defender Matt Aston’s, the substitute stuck out a leg, studs showing, to ensure both players went down in a heap and before they hit the turf, Watkiss was inexplicably pointing to the spot. Justice was served, though, as Spray sent a penalty heading for the bottom left-hand corner only for Edwards to throw himself full-length after it and get a glove on it to push it to safety. Chairman and former keeper Thomas would have appreciated that one.

That should have been that but Lye’s Overfield had other ideas and powered down the right ten minutes from time before arrowing in a cross that was met by a thumping header from Williams in the six-yard box. Not content with that contribution, Overfield finally did further justice to his Gareth Bale topknot by bending in a mouth-watering free kick two minutes later that went up and over a four-man wall and past the diving Edwards.

Improbably, a Lye fightback seemed on the cards as Cradley’s second-half dawdling looked as though it had been misjudged but the hosts could not dig any deeper and were left to rue the ten minutes of madness at the start of the tie that ultimately proved so costly.

For Cradley it is onwards and upwards in league and Vase but Lye, with born-again Hereford finally finding their feet in the Midland League and Alvechurch hot on their heels, are already left looking to the minor cups for solace with the autumn leaves still on the trees.