Looking to close the gap in the run in for the second promotion place in the Midland League Premier, City made the trip to the BBG Stadium, home of Walsall Wood on Tuesday evening. Having faced off only a few weeks back, with Wood coming out on top in a 3-4 goal fest at Claines Lane, City looked to make an amends.

The squad received a surprise boost with the return of fan-favourite Demetri Brown, who has remained joint-registered with the Club, whilst playing for Bromsgrove and Rushall Olympic at a higher level, and it was Brown that opened the scoring in the 35th minute, who was quickest to a rebound save from Bailey Fuller’s low effort. The goal, a result of a speedy counter attack came after Walsall arguably started the stronger of the two sides, minutes before calling Adam Harrison in to a good save with his legs, and a header hitting the post.

Wood then turned on the pressure and caused a number of problems for the City defence from set pieces. City managed to hold strong with another good save from Harrison, a goal line clearance from Halil and fortunately, the ball rattling the crossbar and cleared straight from a May corner kick.

The Blue and Whites went in at the break with a 1-0 lead in an extremely scrappy and highly emotive game, which had seen four yellow cards in the first 45 minutes.

The second half was a similar affair, with both sides opting for balls in to the channels, resulting in neither team really grabbing the game by the horns. City were thrown a lifeline as another long ball was latched on to by Archie Muirhead. He cut in front of his man and was tripped by McKerdy, who was already in the referee’s book, thus was given his marching orders on 70 minutes.

Going down to 10 men appeared to galvanize Wood, who again turned up the pressure. Wood made their final substitution on 72 minutes, bringing Declan Somel on to replace Kaden May. City held strong, with particularly good efforts from stand-in right back Reiss Taylor-Randle and left back Sam Whitton, but the sucker punch hit in the 92nd minute when the ball fell to Somel, who had time to pick his spot and drive the ball in to the bottom corner, past Harrison in the City goal.