Saturday afternoon’s defeat at the hands of Willand Rovers was not acceptable to manager Mike Ford who has until Tuesday evening to turn his team around for the visit of Malvern Town who in contrast won 4-3 away at Helston Athletic.

An early sending-off on 15 minutes for allegedly pulling his opponent down, which was debatable for Sam Bailey after a previous yellow card a few minutes earlier in the 9th minute, saw Bailey take an early shower and watch the match from the stand as Owen Howe stepped up to convert the resulting penalty for Rovers as the Robins were now forced to play with ten men for the remainder of the match.

Rovers gained confidence with the penalty and started to push the Robins into mistakes. Several more bookings followed for the Robins team, Alex Harris, Alfie Dunn, Josh Barlow, Jyrel Bojang and Mike Ford all fell foul of the referee.

Ford made an early change bringing Pelumi Maxwell on for Ethan Moran in the 17th minute, Mackenzie Lamb and Jyrel Bojang replaced Reegan Messenger and Toby Raison at half-time while a debut was given to new dual registration signing with Oxford City to Kauan Bitencourt De Oliveira in the 77th minute replacing Levi Steele.

Howe popped up again to double the visitors’ lead in the 52nd minute before Jacob Wellington put the match well beyond doubt with Rovers 3rd on 84 minutes, and to rub salt into the wounds Philip Da Silva Mendoca sealed a bad day on 92 minutes.

After Saturday’s disappointment Malvern Town are the Robin’s next visitors on Tuesday evening at the Spires and Hartwell Stadium, kick-off at 19:45, get behind the team, cheer them on to turn things around.

Mike Ford shares his thoughts with Tim Allan in an after-match video chat below.

ROBINS STARTING X1 (vs Willand Rovers): 1 Alex Harris, 2 Sam Bailey, 4 Josh Barlow, 5 Toby Raison (46′ 18 Jyrel Bojang), 6 Michael O’Regan, 7 Ethan Moran (17′ 15 Pelumi Maxwell), 9 Levi Steele (71′ 19 Kauan Bitencourt De Oliveira), 10 Amer Awadh (c), 11 Alfie Dunn, 12 Reegan Messenger (46′ 17 Mackenzie Lamb), 14 Will Owens

ROBINS UNUSED SUBSTITUTES:

ATTENDANCE: 271

20241026 Evesham United 0-4 Willand Rovers: Tim Allan after match Interview with Mike Ford