Conscious of the effects of the tremendous effort put in by their team on Saturday against Dudley Town, joint Managers Parker and Smith rang the changes for Tuesday nights local derby with Chelmsley Town.
With Simon Chin coming in for his full debut at centre half, Paget also included Resharn Donegan, Ryan Kimberley and Leslie Omorodion in the starting line up.
Although the line up was changed, Paget wasted little time in getting on the attack and Tim Oyanda, who has re-discovered his best form in the last couple of weeks, danced his way passed the Chelmsley full back before cutting in and with the defence unable to clear Fahme Ibrahim was on hand to smash the ball into the roof of the net.
Despite their bright start the Bears failed to capitalise on their early advantage and Chelmsley quickly grew into the game, knocking the ball around nicely, without creating any real goalscoring chances. Paget on the other hand were playing the ball around in their own half and seemed to lack the forward momentum and cutting edge that has become their hallmark at home this season.
Half Time 1-1
Perhaps sensing that the game was meandering along, Parker, who was sporting yet another new hat (it can only be a matter of time before he’s seen in a Malcolm Allison style Fedora!), decided to take decisive action, bringing on both Louie Newbold and Jamie Hyland, for the start of the second half.
The changes though failed to bring about the desired response and it was a spirited Chelmsley side who began to grow into the game and start to really threaten the Paget goal. It came as no real surprise when Chelmsley grabbed the equaliser, a quick break saw the ball played out wide to Sam Jeeves, who sent a great cross into the box where brother Oli Jeeves ran on to plant a great header into the top corner, leaving goalkeeper Tommy Doyle with no chance.
In an effort to turn the tide Paget introduced both Harry Parker up front and Kyle Stenson out wide. Slowly but surely Paget began to re-assert themselves, with full backs Jevani Robinson and Jamie Hyland in particular pressing much higher up the pitch, supporting the attack.
With the Paget faithful encouraging the team on vociferously from behind the goal, Paget re-gained the lead. A corner floated into the box was spilled by the Chelmsley goalkeeper and there was Dom Ellington on hand to stab the ball home for his first goal in Paget colours.
The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of a young Chelmsley team and as the game moved into the closing stages, substitute Kyle Stenson burst down the left past his full back and into the box, with great awareness he crossed the ball into the six yard box, where the on rushing Tim Oyanda slotted the ball into the corner of the net, to secure the points.
After the game we spoke to joint Manager Parker “I’m obviously delighted to have secured the three points, we were far from at our best tonight but we found a way to win, which is the sign of a good team and that must bode well for the rest of the season.”