Saturday 2 November 2002 - The Grove - kick off 3.00pm FA Trophy 1st Round

In addition to Hervin replacing the suspended Mark Bryant City made one further change from the sides that started both Yeovil matches - cup tied Stuart James returning and relegating Frankie Bennett to the bench. Despite the difficult conditions - the pitch was saturated from the non-stop rain - City began quite brightly and forced the early pace. This advantage should have told after 12 minutes when Newall clearly knocked a James cross behind with his arm. Referee Mr Cox only awarded a corner and two minutes later the home side scored from their first attack. The first of a number of poor clearances from Hervin saw the ball returned into the City box. The usually solid Gary Thorne set the tone for the afternoon by failing to clear and Ashby easily fired home from Collins lay-off. Hervin did save at the feet of Ashby four minutes later but almost gifted Town a second goal on 20 minutes after spilling a Hinds corner. Fortunately the ball fell just wide of his goal. City responded with long range efforts from Jason Eaton and Dan Cleverley until eight minutes before the interval they levelled. Another corner from James casued havoc in the Yeltz box. Keeper Clarke could only parry a Kemp header and the ball fell to Eaton to turn it home from a couple of yards out.

In Tuesday's defeat against Yeovil, City conceded a goal within 22 seconds of the restart and though they held out slightly longer this time it took just two minutes for Halesowen to regain the lead after the break. Having given the ball away near the halfway line City allowed their hosts to break. Collins made ground before squaring toward Colwell. The wet pitch allowed the pass to just evade Andy Williams and the overlapping full-back sent a first time drive across Hervin into the corner of the net. Just another seven minutes had passed when more poor defending allowed Ashby to run past a couple of challenges and lift a shot over the poorly positioned Hervin. If City were going to find a way back into the game they needed inspiration from somewhere and not surprisingly it came from captain Thorne just before the hour mark. A corner was only half cleared to Cleverley and his centre picked out Thorne to send a shot past Clarke. At 3-2 against such a poor defence as Halesowen's City were right back in the game although a series of errors by Hervin still threatened to take the match away from them again. Twice he slipped when attempting regulation clearances and then he allowed Master's shot to get away from him only to just recover it in time. With time beginning to run out City threw on Frankie Bennett to gamble on playing three up front and within eight minutes this approach paid dividends. A powerful run through the middle by Paul Milsom was ended by Clarke only for the ball to break to Eaton and he rolled it home from six yards out. Rather than settling for a replay City went looking for a winning goal only to pay for this adventure with six minutes remaining. Rollo appeared to win the ball when challenging Quiggin just outside the City area. Unfortunately the referee thought differently allowing Elmes to drive a free kick past Hervin via a slight deflection off Thorne. So City were forced to search for another equaliser. In the final minute Bennett saw his shot half parried by Clarke, Milsom just failing to reach the loose ball. Then a stoppage time flap by Clarke saw Bennett stab home but the referee adjudged Milsom's challenge illegal and ruled the 'goal' out and with it City's FA Trophy interest for another season.