Miracle Okafor found himself with a brace early on, then Kieren Donnelly scored either side of half-time before Jack Holmes made it a five-star performance midway through the second half to wrap up the match.

The Blues management duo made four signings leading up to the match, in which three made their debuts – Lucien Mahovo, Ryley Reynolds and Joe Nyahwema all began, with Nathan Whitehead on the bench.

Straight from kick-off, the Blues found themselves on the back foot with Okafor causing a lot of threat with his target man presence.

Just four minutes into the match, some lacklustre defending allowed Richard Gregory to find Okafor inside the box with a delicate pass, and the in-form strike found the bottom left corner with a low-driven strike from close.

Ten minutes later, Nyahwema had a huge chance for the Blues, as the winger drove towards the edge of the Yeltz box, beat his marker and looked to curl an effort towards the top right, although it whipped just past the post.

As the Blues looked for an equaliser mid-way through the first half, a defensive mistake put them on the back foot once again – Okafor capitalised on Riece Bertram’s error, rounded Ross Durrant and secured his second goal of the game.

Another chance did however come the Blues’ way in the 31st minute as Mahovo and Fearon combined, and the latter took aim from the edge of the box which forced Dan Platt into a back-peddling fingertip save.

Bertram almost made up for his early error as he latched onto a Cieron Keane cross with a glancing header just moments before the half-time whistle, although once again the target was missed by a matter of inches.

Then, to rub salt in the wounds, a slight nick from Reynolds on a Yeltz forward inside the Blues box meant the referee awarded the hosts a penalty kick.

Richard Gregory stepped up to take the penalty and saw his effort saved by Durrant, but Donnelly was quick to follow up and tuck home the rebound.

A mistake-riddled first half came to an abrupt end, and the second half soon began with the Blues looking to put the opening 45 behind them.

However, just two minutes after the restart, the Blues found themselves four goals behind. An eager Donnelly drove down the right and in an instant was able to drill a rocket strike across goal and into the bottom left corner.

In the 65th minute, Ed Cook caved open an opportunity of his own by galavanting from defence with the ball at his feet, finding Jebbison and then receiving the ball back in the box for an unorthodox strike, although the centre half could not find the target.

With 15 minutes left of the second half, Halesowen made it five through substitute Holmes. Brilliant link-up play between Holmes and the Yeltz midfielder gave the substitute an opportunity to shoot, which he did and through deflection, the ball looped up and over the diving Durrant.

In the dying moments of the match, Zayn Hakeem displayed some brilliant footwork to get away from his marker and get a shot off on goal, but Platt once again dived and denied the Blues a goal.

That opportunity turned out to be the final of the match, with the referee’s whistle echoing around the ground, and the Blues subsequently receiving their heaviest defeat of the 2023/24 season.