Northern Premier League, Midland Division Saturday 18 October 2025
With some familiar faces missing, the Mikes had a youthful look to them, Nathan Allison and Alfie Taylor making their debuts. Two out of form teams (Boldmere had won two of their last six games, Basford one) produced nothing worthy of report for the first forty-two minutes, cancelling each other out, and producing one shot on goal each, in the encounter’s first quarter. Basford showed signs of danger at points, without scoring: then came the game’s first corner. An accurate cross into a crowded goal area found the head of centre half Ethan Stewart, and the visitors were one up. Once you’re ahead, you become more fluent, and on the stroke of half time Jordan Hallam turned on a sixpence outside the area, and fired Basford two ahead.
Game over? Not yet. We’d hardly got going after the interval, when Harry Wakefield received the ball out on the right, at half way. Seeing visiting keeper Matthew Yates well off his line, Harry (who, unprotected by our referee, had Stewart’s fingerprints all over him) lobbed a long one…and halved the arrears.
For the next half hour, it was anybody’s game, and the entertainment index rose accordingly. Constantine Panayiotou went close with a long-range curler right on the hour; but thereafter, the Nottingham men looked dangerous on the break: in one cameo of desperate Boldmere defence, Kieran Cummings centred the ball three times in thirty seconds, before it was hacked away. It was quick thinking which put clear water between the teams once more, however. With a quarter of an hour left, a smartly taken free kick found Cummings out on the right . As he advanced into the box, some mazy footwork left his marker befuddled…and in went goal number three. After a fine double Brown save kept the margin at two goals, we witnessed the unfortunate sight of seeing one of our combatants stretchered off. Full back Cormac Maher went down from some bumping and barging – and evidently really hurt himself when he hit the ground, moaning piteously. After quite a break, six of his fellows carried him off on a stretcher – for all the world looking as if they were headed to the nearest crematorium. Let’s hope the lad is back in action soon.
You felt, in the match’s closing stages, that Boldmere had shot their bolt, and insult was added to injury three minutes into the nine that needed to be added. A lightning break from defence found Cummings, this time on the left. His penetrative pass found Jack Goodman advancing down the middle…some more mazy footwork found his particular marker befuddled…and goal number four was fired home from fifteen yards out.
The Mikes now occupy a relegation spot. Let’s hope the return of some of their more experienced squad members can turn the tide.
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Nathan Allison; Jordan Gough; Aris Christophorou; Taylor Dodd (Pierre Phillips 75); Connor Armstrong; Nathan Oyemade; Daniel O’Connor (Danny Wood 15; Zachary Binns 75); Harry Wakefield; Alfie Taylor; Kaireice Cunningham (Constantine Panayiotou 46).
Basford United: Matthew Yates; Osa Solomon; Cormac Maher (David Chapman 89); Connor Dimalo; Ethan Stewart; Henri Wilder; Curtis Durose (Dameer Rose 87); Callum Cocks; Jack Goodman; Jordan Hallam (Tyler Dacres 76); Kieran Cummings. Subs. not used: Louis Nicholson; Saul Deeney.