Wednesbury Athletic 0–2 Edgbaston FC: the stalemate broken

In my experience, teams that draw everything in sight eventually run into the game that gets away from them, and Edgbaston found their release on Saturday 15 August, winning 2-0 at Wednesbury Athletic with a performance rather tidier than recent form had led anyone to expect.

The opening goal arrived at 19 minutes, Arthur Coleridge converting a move begun by Mickaël Cazenave. Coleridge, I should note, was sent off against Jesmond four days earlier, a brief red card detour that apparently did nothing for his appetite: he had already laid on a goal in the 90th minute against Crookes on the previous matchday, and here he was again, appearing at the precise spot the defence had abdicated. A 0-0 at that stage might have sent Edgbaston ambling down their familiar corridor to a single point, the sort of result they had been collecting with the dependability of a February drizzle in the Midlands.

Wednesbury, eleventh and in good nick under the table, huffed for a while. The equaliser never surfaced, and when Joachim Hechler finished from Alfonsito Borda-Andino's pass in the 68th, the contest had the quiet certainty of a thing already settled. Hechler, who found the net twice against Mancunia and assisted against Marlborough two days ago, supplied the kind of calm finish that suggested the hosts had long since stopped looking for their own.

No red cards, no drama beyond the necessary. The earlier meeting had finished 3-1, and for a spell that scoreline seemed to hover over the occasion like an unpaid bill: instead Edgbaston kept the ledger clean. The win lifts them above Wednesbury, whose recent form had promised more than a home defeat to a team of serial drawers.

The context is the point: a side allergic to conclusions has finally concluded something, and tomorrow brings another matchday, one that suits neither club for lingering. That is the habit of this league, and it will do Edgbaston's momentum no harm at all.