Stourbridge 2 Halesowen Town 2

A pulsating game had the bumper crowd of 1,575 rapt from start to finish, and was a tremendous advertisement for Black Country Non-League football as the two teams fought each other to a virtual standstill by the full time whistle.

Gary Hackett made three changes to his starting line-up, with Joe Hull, Tom Tonks and Drew Canavan returning in place of Matt Dodd, Brad Birch and Kayelden Brown, and there was a change of formation to bolster numbers in midfield. If it was a gamble, it emphatically failed to pay off in the opening stages.

With the teams unusually changing ends prior to kick-off most of the crowd were still getting their bearings as the Yeltz tore into Stourbridge and took the lead with barely a minute played. A throw-in from the left led to a cross that was not adequately dealt with, and when the ball found its way to ex-Glassboy Lee Chilton eight yards out he wasted no time drilling it beneath the helpless Matt Gould.

Four minutes later it was two. Lively striker Kaiman Anderson got the wrong side of Dan Scarr chasing down a long ball and was only thwarted by Hull's last-ditch challenge at the expense of a corner. The reprieve was only temporary however, as Chilton's flag kick sailed over everyone to the far post, where it was met by Kyle Morrison's thumping header into the roof of the net from a narrow angle.

With 85 minutes to play it was far from game over, but it could well have been just two minutes later as a cross from deep by Chilton saw Anderson loop a header over the badly stranded Gould and just inches over the crossbar. Indeed, many in the crowd thought it was in as the ball skimmed the back of the netting.

Stourbridge's first serious foray of any kind took fifteen minutes to materialise as Yeltz keeper Daniel Platt raced out of his area to head clear with Chris Lait bearing down, quickly followed by Benbow lashing a shot wide from a decent position, but still it was Halesowen asking all the questions. First Kyle Haynes' low cross from the right flew across goal, and then Jordan Goddard found himself with time and space only to shoot tamely straight at Gould.

Manager Hackett decided enough was enough on 24 minutes and withdrew Hull in favour of Brown, reverting to a 4-4-2 formation at the same time, and Stourbridge began to look more settled, gradually working their way back into things and forcing a number of corners.

Despite that, it was still a little out of the blue when a route back presented itself just before the half hour. Another former Stourbridge man, Aaron Griffiths challenged Darryl Westlake, making his home debut, for the ball on the right hand edge of the penalty area and when both went to ground, referee Matthew Law perhaps harshly deemed it worthy of a penalty. Leading scorer Benbow made no mistake from the spot, blasting the ball low to Platt's right to reduce the arrears.

The Glassboys now began to look more lively with Brown and Junior Smikle combining on the left to feed Lait, who pulled his shot wide of the far post, whilst at the other end Halesowen were fractions away from re-establishing their two-goal cushion as another Haynes cross evaded the stretching Anderson.

Stourbridge went close three minutes from the break as Platt misjudged a high ball and was relieved to see a covering defender head clear. However, the ball was recycled to Kristian Green whose shot on the turn from the edge of the area whistled past Platt's left-hand upright.

The final action of the half saw Stourbridge go close again. Lait was fouled by Asa Charlton on the edge of the Halesowen penalty area, earning him a yellow card for his troubles. but Canavan was unable to repeat his heroics of Saturday as he hit the wall with the free kick. From the ensuing corner, Leon Broadhurst headed back across goal for Benbow whose shot was blocked, and then Brown could only head over as he climbed at the far post to meet Broadhurst's subsequent cross.

The second half started with Stourbridge again edging things, but there was little of note in the opening ten minutes other than a caution for Haynes after he brought down Lait.

However, the game took another twist on 56 minutes as a clearance was helped back towards the Yeltz area by Broadhurst to Benbow 25 yards out, who held off his man before turning, setting himself and thundering the ball past Platt, who could only get fingertips to it. With more than half an hour to play it was anybody's game.

Almost immediately Stour could have been ahead as Benbow put Lait through in the left channel, but Platt came to his side's rescue diverting Lait's shot just wide of the post with his foot, and then five minutes later Brown chased down an apparent lost cause on the right, with Benbow and Canavan then combining to feed Lait in the middle who stabbed wide with only Platt to beat.

Brown had the ball in the net on 68 minutes but was rightly given offside by some margin, before Goddard fired a free kick straight at Gould a minute later, and then Platt took centre stage.

First the Yeltz keeper somehow leapt to his left to claw away a header from Green that looked bound for the top corner, and then two minutes later he blocked another header from Scarr on the line.

Free kicks at either end in quick succession saw first Chilton and then Benbow fail to get the ball past the respective walls and with ten minutes to go it seemed that the exertions of the game were finally taking effect, with both teams looking to be running out of steam a little.

Halesowen's final half-chance came with four minutes to play as cross from the left whipped across the face of goal and out for a throw-in, whilst the Glassboys might have pinched the win in stoppage time as Canavan nipped in ahead of Platt to intercept a loose header back by James Hancocks, only for Haynes to get back and avert the danger.

A point apiece was probably a fair reflection of the 90 minutes and both teams will have left feeling both happy and disappointed for different reasons. Halesowen's early dominance could have seen them out of sight in the first fifteen minutes, but once level Stourbridge carved out the better chances, with only Platt coming to his side's rescue more than once.