Bromsgrove Rovers (3) 4

Pelsall Villa (0) 0

Midland Football Alliance

SAM Bowen scored another two goals to add to his Alliance tally as Rovers secured three well-deserved points last night.

Bowen struck either side of half time to move joint top of the leading scoring charts on 11 goals and put Rovers amongst the league's promotion hopefuls.

Back from a brief spell at Evesham United, it took the towering centre forward just nine minutes to make his mark. Following a fine crossfield ball from Fraser McHugh, Bowen's goal bound effort deflected off a Pelsall defender and past keeper Steve Corbett.

Strike partner Les Palmer got in on the act midway through the first half with a neat finish which epitomised his solid performance on the night. Palmer strode down the left unchallenged before cutting into the area and strolling the ball under Corbett.

Rovers virtually killed the game off a minute before the interval when central defender Steve Pope capitalised on some shoddy Pelsall marking and finished past the hapless Corbett.

The floodgates looked set to open. Yet despite dominating the second half, Bromsgrove struggled to punish the visitors.

Corbett redeemed himself with a fantastic point-blank save off Jon Ford's bullet header on 53 minutes and then Palmer watched his effort flash inches wide of the post.

Gordon Lynch twice made excellent forays down the right, but his composure let him down on both occasions.

So it was left to Bowen to complete the scoring, and what a way to do it. Hovering on the edge of the Pelsall area, Bowen picked the ball up and unleashed a peach of a lob which sailed over Corbett.

To compound Villa's misery, striker Cameron Morgan was sent off four minutes from full time for an x-rated two-footed lunge on the impressive Joe Licata.

Rovers: Lowe, Lynch, Lloyd (sub Somnall 71 mins), Brookes, Pope, Ford, Licata, McHugh, Bowen, Palmer (sub O'Neil 79 mins), Kavanagh (sub Banner 71 mins).

Rovers man of the match: Sam Bowen.

Attendance: 247.

Report by CHRIS VAUGHAN.