Hero Hough hits heights

4:41pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

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CHRIS Hough’s hat-trick ensured that Bewdley bounced back by seeing off Tividale 4-1 on Tuesday night in the West Midlands League Premier Division.

Town suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday when they went down 3-1 at home to Gornal Athletic but hit back four days later with an emphatic win at The Beeches.

Manager Craig Payton said: “We haven’t had a settled back four yet and we’re leaking goals, which is something that is worrying the management team.

“We are scoring a lot of goals though and the lads did well to bounce back from the Gornal defeat.

“We started slowly but once we got a grip of the game we began to grind down Tividale.”

On Saturday, Bewdley had to play midfielders Steve Holt and Sam Pountney in the back four because of the absence of John Hardiman, Dan Jones and Wayne Lacey, and Gornal took advantage.

Geoff Hill gave Athletic the lead in the 30th minute and a penalty by Dave Meese, after Luke Paskin had brought down Adam Checketts, saw Bewdley slip 2-0 down.

Town pushed for a goal but Hill scored in the 87th minute, before Mike Carter pulled one back minutes later.

Paskin missed a chance to reduce the gap to one goal when he missed a penalty.

On Tuesday night, Town fielded a conservative 4-5-1 formation and after going 1-0 down gradually battled back into the game.

Hough levelled the scores on the stroke of half-time and two more strikes for the hitman handed Bewdley a 3-1 lead.

Winger Dan Ludlow ensured 18 goals for Town in just four games with a late effort.

Town go to Wednesfield on Saturday and take on Ledbury at Ribbesford Meadows on Wednesday (7.45pm kick-off).