West Midland Football Alliance
Ellesmere Rangers 4,
Tipton Town 2
ELLESMERE fans could soon be humming the tune from The Great Escape as they watched their side demolish their fourth placed visitors to complete a haul of seven points in a week.
After enduring scoring problems all season, Ellesmere opened in sensational style with two in a minute.
First Connor Courtney smashed a superb free kick from wide out right which everyone lunged for but no-one got a touch on as it found the opposite corner of the net inside two minutes.
The second came inside four minutes when Jamie Haynes sent a corner to the far post where defender James O’Reilly headed home at the far post for an astounding opening.
The visitors reacted immediately and were level with two goals of their own as first Danny Dubidat reacted to a free kick which fell invitingly to him inside the box after five minutes and completed the recovery through Karl Edwards who fired home a ball pulled back by the dangerous Nigel Penny.
Edwards almost scored again from a Penny cross but his final shot was just blocked at the crucial second.
The turning point of the game came when Tipton’s Penny was forced off with injury along with their ’keeper Jack Hayfield who aggravated a pre-existing injury when he turned over another dangerous Courtney corner and was replaced by debutant Ryan Kimberley.
The deteriorating conditions also suited Ellesmere better as they began to run the game after the break.
The breakthrough came on 65 minutes when the industrious Josh Brown stole the ball from Tipton’s left back, Reuben Wilson, cut in from the flank and with everyone expecting a pull back he lashed a shot into the roof of the net from a narrow angle.
Ten minutes later the points were secure when a clearance from the Tipton box arrived at the feet of George Durrell 30 yards from goal and his shot took a slight deflection as it swerved into the Tipton net.
Although Ellesmere could not relax, they played out the rest of the game without too much alarm apart from an Edwards shot, which sailed over the bar with home ’keeper Maguire stranded.
l Tonight, Tuesday, Ellesmere have a chance to make further inroads into the four points deficit with a game against relegation threatened side Heather St John before entertaining fellow strugglers Highgate United on Saturday.