Football
Draper goals send Sporting through

Buy photos » Jon Rogers gets away from his man on Saturday. Picture by Andre Roberts.

TWO goals from Keith Draper sent Bromsgrove Sporting into the last eight of the Smedley Crooke Cup on Saturday as they overcame Midland Combination Division One rivals 2-0 at the Victoria Ground, writes Andy Parr.

Sporting, who are without a game this weekend due to the Victoria Ground being used for a Representative Match between the Midland Combination and Leicestershire League, will now go on to host the winners of tomorrow’s second round clash between Fairfield Villa and FC Glades Sporting in the quarter-finals.

In what proved to be a hotly contested first half, the first clear chance fell to Shirley in the 11th minute but home stopper Chris Mole pulled off a fine save to deny Leon Reid after he beat the off-side trap.

Sporting broke the deadlock five minutes later though when a great pass from Joe Brookes released Draper and he cut in from the right and sent a deflected effort past Sanders in the Shirley goal.

There was plenty of action at both ends with Shirley having the advantage territorially but they were struggling to breakthrough Sporting’s defence.

They did create one good opportunity when Baxter caught out Nick Harris at left back but Mole came to the rescue.

The home side were dealt a blow when Chris Bright suffered a suspected broken collar bone when trying to retain possession in a tackle with Farrell after a poor touch.

Sporting improved in the second half and they should have wrapped the game up earlier but the combination of good goalkeeping from Sanders and some poor finishing kept it 1-0.

Winger Ryan Molesworth, who replaced Bright, twice went close but saw the bar and a goalline clearance deny him whilst Peter Jenvey saw an effort fly just wide.

Jon Rogers was playing a pivotal role in holding the ball up as the lone striker and Shirley were fortunate to hold out until the 85th minute.

Shirley’s efforts to scramble the ball clear only resulted in it falling to Draper on the edge of the box and he fired home off the underside of the bar.

With Shirley having already collected four bookings for various offences, the second goal signalled an almost complete loss of discipline and four more bookings, including a second for Farrell and a red card for one of the management team.