Halesowen Town 1, Chippenham Town 2 (From Wiltshire Times)

Halesowen Town 1, Chippenham Town 2

3:23pm Friday 20th January 2006 in Sport

STEVE Perrin lent his brother Darren a helping hand on Saturday with a string of important saves to deny a battling Halesowen Town at The Grove.

Perrin withstood a barrage of late pressure from the West Midlands' side as the Bluebirds extended their impressive record to six consecutive Southern League wins.

Having had little to do in recent weeks, the 33-year-old former Forest Green Rovers goalkeeper needed all his powers of concentration on Saturday to inflict a third home defeat of the season on Halesowen.

After the game a delighted Perrin said he was glad to have played his part in a hard-fought team victory.

He said: "In one sense I thought Saturday was our best performance of the season because we worked hard against a physical Halesowen team.

"We were really under the cosh and I thought the defence played well in front of me. We coped with everything they threw at us, and they threw a lot at us.

"It was pleasing to put in a good personal display but I'm past worrying about how good my saves look. The main thing is that I'm there to make important stops at times in the game when we're under pressure."

Chippenham shot out of the blocks and should have taken the lead after just 10 minutes.

Dave Gilroy raced clean through on goal but his shot was blocked by a desperate lunge from the Halesowen centre half.

Two minutes later Gilroy punished the West Midlands hosts. The impressive Alan Griffin beat two defenders before his pinpoint pass found Gilroy unmarked, and the striker stroked his first time shot between the posts.

The home side refused to lie down and hit back in the 26th minute courtesy of Alex Cowley.

Chippenham failed to clear their lines following a free kick and Cowley smashed the ball past a helpless Steve Perrin to level the scores.

As half-time approached the visitors were indebted to Perrin, who produced two excellent saves to deny Cowley a first half hat-trick.

After an uncompromising team talk from Darren Perrin and Adie Mings, Chippenham came to life in the second half.

Ben Kirk restored the lead with a well struck half volley from the edge of the box. Halesowen half-cleared a corner from the right and Kirk arrived on cue to hammer the ball past the goalkeeper, who got a hand to the ball but couldn't keep it out.

But Chippenham nearly collapsed under the weight of some late Halesowen pressure as Steve Perrin held firm between the posts.

The Bluebirds' stopper made two superb saves in the dying moments as Chippenham clung on through five minutes of stoppage time for a valuable three points. Boss Darren Perrin said brother Steve had kept Chippenham's promotion push on track.

He said: "To me Steve is the club goalkeeper and not my brother. Whichever way you want to look at it, he made some great saves to keep our winning run going.

"It was a real backs-to-the-wall effort in the second half. I thought the lads fought hard and showed their resilience. I was delighted to get the result."

Perrin refused to be drawn into any pre-emptive talk of a genuine title challenge and has set his players the goal of securing a play-off spot instead.

He said: "I believe the Southern League trophy is only going to one place and that's Salisbury City.

"If we can make the play-offs we have already proven this season that we are capable of beating anybody.

"The spirit in the camp is unbelievable at the moment and the players deserve all the credit for the way they have responded to the title challenge."

Striker Matt Rawlins came off the bench on Saturday to make his league debut for Chippenham and Perrin has promised to rotate his squad to get the best out of his front men.

He said: "Matty did well when he came on and it's good for the club that we have three quality strikers competing for two places.

"The attitude of all three players has been first class in training and they all get along really well.

"Griff (Alan Griffin) and Gilly (Dave Gilroy) have always been hard workers but you can see they both want to fight for their place in the team.

"It's a nice position for me to be in as manager."