A New Year’s local derby is set as two of the West Midlands biggest non-league sides face off

Halesowen Town and Bromsgrove Sporting meet at the former’s home ground, The Grove, for a meeting in the Southern Premier Central, almost mirrored from a year ago. This is just the fifth meeting between the two sides since our opponents were founded back in 2009, and the most recent came on New Year’s Day in 2025.

Halesowen Town's ground 'The Grove'

The Yeltz enter the game after a big win at Worcester City on Boxing Day, while Bromsgrove under new manager and former England goalkeeper Tim Flowers picked up a much needed point at home to 4^th place Redditch United.

The visitors sit just two places above relegation, but their new boss Flowers feels his side are rejuvenated. Upon his arrival at the club, Bromsgrove Chairman Rod Brown stated “We worked with Tim previously as interim for three months. Then, he managed to keep us up that year. Tim comes with a vast experience of steps one, two and three of the non-league pyramid, plus strong recruitment expertise.”

The Halesowen Town boss, Russ Penn also shared his thoughts on the contest, as he hopes for a better start to the year than last year after defeat to their opponents this weekend.

“Our opponents will be refreshed for this weekend, going well under a new manager in Tim Flowers. Tim is a fantastic manager, and I feel a team who has him is very lucky. I don’t think he has had the run of the green in the teams he has gone to in the last two years, but I feel like Bromsgrove is a side who suit him.

His side’s, as we saw with his Alvechurch team over the last 12 months are tough to beat, and resolute. It is a local derby which will have a great crowd which will provide us with a very good chance to start the year well.

I think 2026 could be a big year for us all. We go into the year with high expectation and a lot of belief to right the wrongs of some poor defeats towards the back end of last year, and go on a similar run to the start of last year.”

The fixture has been noted down for segregation, as a big crowd is expected following the 1,500+ at the game last year over the New Year period.