POOR concentration and confidence levels were culpable for Saturday’s humbling, says Bromsgrove Sporting manager Brendan Kelly.
Barwell extended their unbeaten league run to six matches after blowing away Sporting in a scintillating second-half display at the Victoria Ground.
Goals from Kai Williams, Brady Hickey and Omotolani Omotola won the game for the Canaries after Bromsgrove’s Leon Broadhurst cancelled out Tristan Dunkley’s opener with a close-range header.
Kelly says the nature of the result and the performance have irked him in the days since the defeat, but there is no need to get too carried away despite the frustration.
“It’s a mix of two things – confidence and concentration – I don’t know what’s happened to us lately,” he said.
“I was really annoyed after the game, I keep saying to the lads about how we’ve put ourselves in this great position, so we can’t just throw it away.
“But there’s no need to hit the panic button, you look where we are in fourth in our first season at this level.
“It’s just frustrating because the results in the other games involving teams around us have gone our way but we didn’t capitalise again.”
Both sides had half chances early on, with Sporting’s Jack Wilson forcing a save from Max Bramley, while Dunkley tested Sporting keeper Dan Platt at the other end.
Some alarming defending led to the Barwell opener on 26 minutes, as Dunkley turned the ball home from the right side of the penalty area. But just four minutes later the scores were level. The equaliser arrived in fortunate fashion too, as Greg Mills’ inswinging corner was palmed away by Bramley onto the head of Broadhurst, who nodded in from a yard out.
Mills went close to adding a goal of his own when rippling the side netting with a strike from just inside the penalty area.
Barwell hit the front once again in the 53rd minute when Williams had the finish to match his unstoppable run down the wing, picking out the bottom corner of the net.
Further chances followed for the away side, who hit the post through Williams, while Hickey sent a free-kick straight into Platt’s gloves.
A penalty 15 minutes from time eventually gave the away side some breathing space when Kieran Westwood cut down Williams inside the area and Hickey hammered the ball straight down the middle of the goal.
It became 4-1 in the 81st minute when the alert Omotola capitalised on Platt’s indecision to rob possession and direct the ball into an empty net.
Quotes from Ben Tyler, report from Max Banner.
