Northern Premier League | Midland Division | Saturday 23 November 2024
Our visitors (we were informed) had four players on the park with over 200 appearances in Hinckley colours. (It was pleasing, incidentally, to see them playing in their regular red and blue, rather than some garish “away strip”). Boldmere, by contrast, have to keep shuffling their pack as players leave, often in search of more money. In the end, it showed; but you wouldn’t have known that from the first half, even though by then the Mikes were a goal down. Indeed, they could count themselves unfortunate not to be two goals to the good.
In a promising opening ten minutes, Gus Sanches was inches wide, heading a penetrative Charlie Manners centre, and a fluid four man move ended with Jake Wilkes hitting the base of the post from twenty-five yards. Thereafter, both teams played Route One football, Liam Murphy not far off twice as an even game emerged after the hosts’ early pressure. As it turned out, the Road snaffled the lead with half time in sight. From a Hinckley corner, much barging took place in the Boldmere goalmouth – impeding custodian Jonathan Brown? Anyway, Liam Read hooked the ball home to put Hinckley a goal up. Half time: 0-1.
The wind got up in the second half, swirling bouts of heavy rain around as it rolled over the newly erected nylon sheeting. This, and a resultant greasy ball, meant that most of the long diagonal balls to Theo Rowe went astray: if we could stretch him six inches, he’d have reached some of them! Nine minutes in, Hinckley had the ball in the net from a corner once again; but this time our referee ruled it out, for shoulder climbing. The visitors were beginning to put well worked movements together now, and it needed an athletic clearance by Brown, at his far post, after the Mikes’ back line had been penetrated on his near one.
The hour passed, a diving Brown save from a Dom Brennan rocket kept his side in the game, while Hinckley, you sensed, were beginning to play out time. As darkness set in, the hosts were starting to argue amongst themselves. The Hinckley forwards – Read, Brennan and Nuttall – were now dribbling at the Boldmere defence, Nuttall thus making his way across the pitch, and the penalty area, before hitting the post.
With six minutes’ standard time left, there came the goal that snuffed out the Mikes’ chances of gaining any points. Lewis Allison collected the game’s only yellow card (this was a well-behaved encounter) after holding his man, just outside the box. Liam Read ran up to take the resulting free kick: the four-man Boldmere wall jumped to block it: Read left it; and there was Louie Gill, following up, to curl it home.
Boldmere used the dying minutes to give some bench sitters some game time, Manager Kitch’s son Daniel making his debut, while I don’t think Steve Palmer even touched the ball. Hinckley, significantly, didn’t make a single substitution. You can do that, when you’ve got a settled squad.
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Pierre Phillips; Jake Wilkes (Daniel Kitching, 87); George Cleet; Kyle Burke; Lewis Allison; Gus Sanches (Hisham Chiha,80); Tom Edge (Steve Palmer,87); Liam Murphy (Jake Collins, 61); Charlie Manners; Theo Rowe. Sub. not used: Oliver West.
Hinckley LRFC: Jake Laban; Andrew Wooldridge; Louie Gill; Joseph Lyne; Simon Allcott; Ben Humphreys; Jordan Burrows; Michael Armstrong; Liam Read; Dom Brennan; Aaron Nuttall. Subs. not used: Chris Jones; Ben Gough; Callum Earls; Jake Wormleighton; Luke Jefferey.