YARDLEY will head into the final fixture of the West Midlands Division 1 season hoping to avoid finishing bottom despite losing to West Bromwich on Saturday.
In what was West Bromwich’s last game of the season, the visitors maintained their push for promotion with a comfortable 4-1 victory.
West Bromwich made a confident start and were passing the ball about well but did not really threaten their hosts’ goal.
In fact it was Yardley who had the first shot on target when Rob McGuigan forcing the West Brom keeper to be alert to keep out his shot on goal.
Further West Brom pressure led to a short corner from which they opened the scoring after ten minutes and at this stage, although defending resolutely enough, Yardley were limited in their attacking chances.
They did however manage to grab an equaliser from a short corner of their own with an initial shot on goal only partially cleared and the ball fell to Noor Zaman who only needed a simple tap in to score.
With skipper Zach Jarvis working hard to push his team forward, it was also great credit to Yardley’s defence with Gavin Hetherington and Matt Bartlett at the heart that West Brom could not add to their initial goal. Yardley keeper Neal Makepeace was also in good form making many crucial saves.
With a West Brom player carded off before half time, Yardley were unable to capitalise on their numerical advantage. However, Yardley held their own until half time and were happy enough to be level pegging at the break.
At the start of the second half both teams probed for openings and both defences were called upon to work hard before West Brom edged back in front when one of their attacks was only partially cleared. Alert following up put the ball into the net.
With the visitors now sensing they might be on the winning trail, another attack led to a third goal. Yardley now realised that there was realistically no way back from this but they kept manfully to their task.
There followed a rather disjointed period when both teams were affected by yellow and green card situations at different times.
The game was finally well and truly won when a well taken West Bromwich goal meant that they remained in second place in the league.
Yardley will finish their season with a visit to Pershore content that they will not finish bottom as they have done for several occasions recently.
