Stourbridge 3 Barwell 0 - Report

All the goals came in the first half and the second period fizzled out in comparison in front of a bumper festive crowd of 719.

The opening exchanges saw Barwell exert some pressure with a number of corners but once Aaron Hayden nodded in Robbie Thompson-Brown's corner on ten minutes to make it 1-0 it was all Stourbridge.

Five minutes later Luke Benbow had three swipes at forcing a corner in but couldn't quite manage it but he was on hand to take the ball which was won by Jordaan Brown and move forward before dispatching it into the net from 20 yards out.

The first real shot Barwell had was on 27 minutes when Elliot Percival saw his curling shot saved by James Wren.

Even better was to come from Benbow though on 40 minutes when he put a trademark free kick straight into the right hand corner of the net, giving goalkeeper Liam Castle little chance.

The second half saw Barwell predictably applying pressure as they fought to get back into the game but they never really looked like scoring, though Jamie Towers did head in on 72 minutes but was ruled offside.

For Stourbridge, Leon Broadhust could have made it four ten minutes from time when he somehow missed an open net with a free header, the ball hitting the ground and eventually going wide.

Boss Gary Hackett said the approach to the forthcoming derby with Halesowen Town would be the same as for any game and their focus was on winning as many games as possible.

He said: "The approach will be no different to that in recent weeks but we are aware it is a local derby, there will be a big crowd and results against them have not been as good as I would have liked in recent seasons but we just need to make sure we are ready to go."

Team:

Wren (Maher 68); Hayden; Brown; McCone (c); Westlake; Forde (Christiphorou 78); Powell (Steele 26); Broadhurst; Benbow; Thompson-Brown; Mills.

Attendance: 719