Northern Premier League Midland Division Tuesday 19 August 2025
After the previous Tuesday’s “smash and grab” victory, it looked as if the Mikes had snaffled another point, until the eighty eighth minute. As last week, the opposition started on the front foot, skimming the bar and twice shaving the right post in the first seven minutes. With the visitors combining nicely down the left, and ably prompted by play maker Andy Dales, once again the Mikes tackled doggedly to stay in the game.
Eighteen minutes in, great work by Jordan Gough prevented the visitors opening their account, and from the response we saw the kind of silky move the present Mikes sometimes surprise us with. A five-man exercise down the left ended with an accurate Charlie Manners centre to Frankie Ealing, who ran through to put Boldmere ahead.
The lead lasted seven minutes. A long, looping free kick into a crowded home box found the head of Stuart Beavon, and went in via the underside of the bar. The visitors having gone close twice in the next seven minutes, the intensity of exchanges boiled over with forty minutes gone, Alex Lock and our guests’ Harry Wood gaining yellows after our referee had correctly played advantage, after a foul. The Mikes went close twice to reestablishing their lead before the break, but half time arrived at 1-1.
Straight from the resumption, for a moment it looked as if fortune had smiled on the Mikes: was that foul a penalty? Evidently not; and there being no protests from the hosts, presumably outside the area was the right place for the kick. Interval instructions became evident: the Micks (??) had been told to chase down their opponents, while the Mikes were running for each other more. Chances came at either end, the night’s biggest “Oooh” coming when Nathan Oyemade rapped the bar from way out wingwards. By the hour, two substitutions had already been made, as both teams looked for a breakthrough.
Nothing of note happened hereafter, as more combatants came and went. Would the Mikes scramble through to parity? Two standard minutes remaining, George Cleet gained (another) yellow for bringing down the advancing Dales, twenty yards from the line. Dales took the kick himself – and sent in a brutal delivery which came out off the underside of the bar. As it bounced around the goal area, Dan Benson seized his chance to put the men from Derby ahead, and take the points – which, on the balance of play, you couldn’t begrudge them.
Boldmere St Michaels: Ashton Rinaldo; Frankie Ealing; Jordan Gough; George Cleet; Kyle Burke (Aaron Forde 58); Lewis Allison; Kaireice Cunningham; Charlie Manners (Kye Bilton 78); Harry Wakefield; Alex Lock (Freddie Cockerell 67); Nathan Oyemade. Subs. not used: Zachary Binns; Pierre Phillips.
Mickleover: Oliver Bosworth; Stephen Fikula (Louis Bonser 76); Toby Smith; George Wilkinson; Ashton Offler; Dan Benson; Ali Mohiuddin; Harry Wood (Will Atkinson 53); Stuart Beavon; Andy Dales; Archie White (Michael Hollingsworth 67). Subs. not used: Liam Carter; Fraser Corden.