Real Bedford Updates

[Yeltzbaby]

Great result. Still unbeaten, but to be honest I still can't get over how crap we were in those friendlies lol

[juanillo]

There were some scrappy goals, and in reality they fluffed their lines three times on crosses, but it was a good come back win. Also, in the second half, they didn't look threatening.

[Rich]

Excellent well earned 3 points today. For all their lovely tippy tappy football at the back they never really caused us any problems, mainly due to our excellent work rate starting with the front 2 and us keeping our shape not allowing them to get through us.
5 really scrappy goals which need to be viewed again on Yeltz tv to see what exactly happened.


Not sure on a MOM today but really surprised Finn given it.
Cant ask much more and its 3 points against one of favoured teams.
Have to say though he was one of the weakest keepers Ive seen in a long time
Well done guys

[DJ]

Southern League Premier Central – Saturday, 16th August 2025

Halesowen Town 3 Real Bedford 2

Unbeaten Halesowen came from behind to inflict a rare defeat on newly promoted Real Bedford in the first ever meeting between the clubs, writes DJ.

Yeltz manager Russ Penn was delighted with the result. “We were worked today all over the park, but we were excellent. We’ve gifted early goals away, we’re working on it. But we recharged at half time, solved it and won the game convincingly in the second half. We stopped them playing and worked on their vulnerabilities from set pieces.”

Real Bedford’s Sam Cartwright headed just wide in the 6th minute after Conor Tee’s cross was turned away by his former club. For Halesowen, Kyle Finn threaded the ball through for Charlie Wragg in front of goal but visiting goalkeeper Tyler McGregor saved with his legs in the 12th minute.

The Pirates took a simple 13th minute lead when Josh Setchell touched the ball on for Ben STEVENS to chip delightfully into the top corner with home goalkeeper Dan Platt left rooted to the spot.

But the Yeltz worked back into the game and levelled in the 26th minute directly from Jak HICKMAN’s corner after McGregor failed to deal with the ball under pressure. In a good spell for Halesowen, McGregor lost control again but escaped from both Finn and Milan Butterfield, who blazed over the bar in fast and furious action. Finn was then denied again at the far post in the 42nd minute.

Real Bedford regained their lead just seconds before the interval after the Yeltz failed to clear a Stevens corner, allowing Joey EVANS to poke home on the goal-line.

The Pirates failed to create any second half danger and it was Halesowen who went close twice shortly after the interval as Jason Cowley shot just wide and then McGregor stretched to save Wragg’s low shot. McKauley Manning went close twice and Jamie Willets headed a 61st minute corner wide before the hosts finally turned the game around with two further goals.

Wragg and Finn combined allowing COWLEY to tap home the 63rd minute equaliser in front of goal after further scrappy defending. Halesowen substitute Harry Burns drove just wide in the 82nd minute before BUTTERFIELD headed home the close range winner from Finn’s 84th minute corner.

Halesowen Town: Dan Platt; Jak Hickman (Reece Mitchell 62), Ben Cassidy, Josh Smile (Todd Parker 73), Alex Gudger, Charlie Wragg (Harry Burns 73), Jason Cowley (James Kellermann 88), Kyle Finn, McKauley Manning, Milan Butterfield, Jamie Willets (c). Sub Not Used: Ryan Wollacott.

Real Bedford: Tyler Joseph McGregor, Drew Richardson (c), Jack Davies, Samuel Cartwright, Joshua James Setchell, Archie Jones (Isaac Nathaniel Galliford 88), Joseph Evans (Josh Allen 80), Ben Charles Stevens (Tom Hitchcock 90), Conor Tee, Ben Robert Weyman (Lee Jacob Watkins 62), Shaheim Prince Maliquie Ward. Sub Not Used: Anthony Adeyemi Agemoh-Davies

Referee: Gareth Davis Attendance: 1,147
Booked: Hickman (9), Butterfield (28), Manning (53)
Tulleys Print HTFC Man of the Match selected by the Vice-Presidents: Kyle Finn

[juanillo]

A report from the Bedford press:
https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/r ... halesowen/

[andy]

Excellent well earned 3 points today. For all their lovely tippy tappy football at the back they never really caused us any problems, mainly due to our excellent work rate starting with the front 2 and us keeping our shape not allowing them to get through us.
5 really scrappy goals which need to be viewed again on Yeltz tv to see what exactly happened.


Not sure on a MOM today but really surprised Finn given it.
Cant ask much more and its 3 points against one of favoured teams.
Have to say though he was one of the weakest keepers Ive seen in a long time
Well done guys

Absolutely this. Much better in the second half, great work rate throughout the team. Awful goals to give away and awful goals for them to concede. That said I'll take three points against a so called favourite however they come. Well done lads. Onwards!

[YeltzBaggieNick]

I enjoyed today for what it was - a proper battling performance against the latest Mickey Mouse Yank owned outfit. Probably harsh but too late I've said it. Not a great footballing performance from us but we stuck at it. Great to see Milan on the scoresheet after missing what looked like a sitter of sorts. A very pleasing win in a fixture where I thought we'd struggle. On we go...

[YeltzDoc]

I enjoyed today for what it was - a proper battling performance against the latest Mickey Mouse Yank owned outfit. Probably harsh but too late I've said it.

CripCrap asked me to write something for the programme on this, reprinted below, for them wot didn't get one. You'll be amazed to hear that I took a contrary view. Well, sort of.


Really Bedford?

Morecombe have More-or-less gone, the Gigg Laners are nearly dead and Bury’ed and the problem’s coming to the Steel City, to wit, to whom the blue and white half will turn their heads (double groan).

Now, this isn’t a hatchet piece, nor is it a call for jumpers for goalposts (hmm, isn’t it?) or a return to flat caps and whippets (which I get enough of at home).

So, what is it – well, certainly not a coherent argument, or at least not yet.

Moneybags, neophyte football clubs, the worst surely? Historical underachievers, get sponsored by some property developers, bit of cup success and then pinch all the good players from a 50-mile radius? Yeah, that was us in the ‘80s.
OK, err, let’s think of mid-table also-rans, new owners from the US who have been implicated in financial schemes, Flash Harrys turning up in helicopters with models of the hotel complex they plan to build? Damn, us again.

Bit harder than it looks isn’t it, this “aren’t the Johnny-Come-Latelys a bunch of ****s”.

Let’s take a step back. The Lisbon Lions, where everyone lived within a Tommy Tonks throw of Parkhead, will never roar again. Even down here in the boondocks, the days of Paul and Lee coming on the bus, only stopping for chips over the road, have disappeared too.
So, is it all BitCoin and Billionaires now? Wolverine and Wrexham? Oligarchs and the ‘orrible? Whilst it’s always sunny in Philadelphia, it doesn’t half chuck in down in Colley Gate.

I suspect the most disliked concept in football is nuance. Messrs McElhenny and Reynolds have undoubtedly been wonderful for Wrexham. Yes, if you’re a Chester fan, or a Spireite from Chesterfield, who lost out to the North Walians as they blasted through the National League, then, no doubt you’re twisted about it. But that’s football and that’s capitalism.

But what about the truly criminal? Ex-Bluenose owners still in jail, much closer to home, namesakes of our intrepid writer never being short of a snout, and there’s a long list of other chairmen ending up behind bars for much worse. What on earth can attract them to football at any level?
As anyone who’s been to The War Memorial will tell you, it must be “the glamour”...

Sarcasm aside, it is a ride. Nobody comes in with the aim to asset strip a step 4 club. It’s surely a combination of altruism, ego, opportunism, challenge, dreams, Boy’s Own Adventure, and the full range of all the other, normal, human emotions.
Even those whose Morrells, sorry, morals, were ultimately found to be dubious, walked through the door with lofty ambitions. Had another, totally differently “engineered” team slipped on the soap in their Team Bath, then he and we might have gotten away with it, and we could be bemoaning the two-up, two-down into Division Two, or the new format of the Champions League.

“Come on you lily-livered liberal”. I hear you cry. “How can you wear your responsibly-sourced St Pauli hoodie and have sympathy for The Devil?”
Fair point, but I remind you that at medical school, I did have to take the Hypocritical Oath. There’s some wrong-uns who want to sell the earth, literally, to build a Tesco, and there’s some truly awful businessmen who shouldn’t be trusted to run a bath, let alone a community asset, but, those with purely malign intent are few-and-far between.
More prevalent is the dreamer, the cheeky-chancer, the Peter-Principled, and the just plain yampo.

As always, it's the long-suffering Shed-Ender who gets it in the neck. I don’t fear for Real Bedford fans, but I’m a bit worried for the Bedford Town loyals who could get eaten up and then spat out when the Block Chain snaps. The poor old Gloucester City fan (yes, that’s hard to write) who had to watch them spend more time with the Administrator than their mates at their famous underwater stadium, and the cynical Bluenose who’s just waiting for their latest Brady Bunch to get bored and head back to Gridiron and guaranteed participation at the top level.

Did the argument become any more coherent? Maybe not. But when Newcastle are owned by a sovereign nation’s investment fund, it’s not all black and white. We’re all at the whim of the money men and the market. Our friends at Bromsgrove Warriors (or whatever they’re called this week) have ridden the ride to a level that oh-so-nearly came to us. But they enjoyed the trip and have re-found their natural home. And we’d do the same.

But let’s just hope that we never have to.

YeltzDoc.

[andy]

Brilliant

[piearce9]

Great post, Doc. You’ll have the programmes selling out at this rate. Love the references - I got at least two of them