Knight: Gornal helped by red card (From Redditch Advertiser)

Knight: Gornal helped by red card

12:00pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in Local Sport

STUDLEY manager Lee Knight felt the sending off of Gornal Athletic’s Danny Ashton during Saturday’s 1-1 draw changed the game in the Black Country side’s favour.

The Bees had been leading through Liam Hearn’s fifth goal in as many games when Ashton was shown a red card for a late high challenge on Matty Collins.

Despite losing a man, Knight felt the sending off galvanised the Peacocks, who levelled the scores through Ravi Sangha in the 83rd minute.

“It’s a weird one but I felt if the game had remained 11 versus 11 we would have won it,” said Studley’s manager. “We were on top of them and our passing was very good but Gornal changed their shape after the dismissal and gave us problems.

“We had to change things around as Matty Collins had to come off as well.

“There was no malice in the challenge and the lad came into the dressing room at half-time and apologised.

“It’s one of those moments when I would have been gutted to have a player sent off for that.

“Before the game I would have snapped your hands off for a 1-1 draw but now I felt we could have won it.”

Collins, who has stud marks in his leg, is not expected to be out for too long. Knight also praised the good work of club physio Paul Hunter.

“Paul’s fantastic,” added Knight. “He’s the hardest working man at the club and is doing an absolutely fantastic job.”

The Bees booked their place in the Worcestershire Senior Cup last four with an impressive 3-0 win over West Midlands League high-flyers Lye Town on Tuesday night.

They entertain struggling Coleshill on Saturday (3pm ko) and then welcome high-flying Loughborough Universty on Tuesday night (7.45pm ko).

Studley are in a rich vein of form and further enhanced their chances of survival last week with a 4-0 trouncing of Heath Hayes, thanks to goals for Collins (2), Ross Dempster and Jason Ramsay.