Droitwich Spa earned an important win over a strong Gornal Athletic side on Saturday to end The Peacocks' 100% start to the season.

Spa were on top for most of the first period- James Lemon, Jordan Cox, Connor Collins and Jack Davies all came close to opening the scoring until good work from Lemon down the right saw him brought down in the penalty area and the referee pointed to the spot.

Connor Collins confidently stepped up and placed his spot kick into the bottom right corner to give Spa the lead.

Droitwich continued to press and Cox was giving Sam Bratt-Wytton a torrid time down the left hand side.

A couple of excellent corners also nearly ended in Spa further adding to the score-line however Dugmore's header went just wide and Paul Smith's long range drive was deflected away.

At the other end Gornal looked dangerous on the counter and mustered a few half chances, yet Maslen-Jones, Guest and Liam Harding failed to seriously test Matt Oliver.

Spa started the second half encouragingly as well with several blocked efforts early on.
Within 10-minutes of the restart the Saltmen doubled their advantage when Connor Collins looped an effort over Peacocks stopper Josh Raden and in off the crossbar from a few yards out.

Spa's second goal really gave Gornal some impetous, and for the next 20 minutes, Athletic were on the front foot.

It seemed just a matter of time until Gornal would score, and with some sustained pressure Kane Lewis was on hand to head home.

Within 5 minutes it was all square with Spa pushed back too deep and Nathan Guest's unstoppable strike made it 2-2.

Soon after, the referee awarded Gornal a free kick on the halfway line, Spa had played on and Haydn Morris was scythed to the ground from a strong sliding tackle accentuated by the slippery surface.
A melee ensued with most players involved and Connor Collins was shown a red card for violent conduct, however it was unclear as to why.

Haydn Morris was subsequently replaced by Ollie Thompson barely 10 minutes after coming on.

Spa then played out the remaining quarter with 10 men, and whilst the Gornal deluge should have threatened, it never really materialised as the visitors didn't take advantage of their numerical advantage.

The 2-2 score-line was kept intact thanks to a world-class close-range save from Matt Oliver which had everyone in attendance applauding the stop, which also changed the course of the game in Spa's favour.

Spa for their part dealt with the situation impecably, and had several chances to take the lead once again until Jordan Cox popped up with a few minutes remaining to net from close range to give Spa a hard fought victory.