Northern Premier League | Midland Division | Saturday 25 January 2025
Having leaked sixteen goals in their last five games, the Mikes included youngster Pierre Phillips in their defence, and Jake Wilkes on the right wing, where not much has happened of late. The visitors had ex-Mikes Kyle Burke and Luke Shearer in their ranks.
Boldmere started untidily, and had to withstand some early Sphinx pressure, a corner skidding across the goalmouth, and a free kick pushed away by Jonathan Brown, in the first two minutes. Spells of aerial ballet alternated with physical contact, three fouls conceded in the first five minutes, and physios coming on four times before the break, to tend the discomfited. A well worked move down the Boldmere left ended with Ben George firing home an accurate Theo Rowe centre to give the hosts a seventeenth minute lead.
Parity was restored only six minutes later. Some mesmerising dribbling by Luke Shearer set up Finlay Shorrock on the box’s edge, for him to fire home. From here on, it was anyone’s game, as play moved from one end to the other. The Coventrians lost solid stopper Louis Guest to injury ten minutes from the interval, and Shearer was substituted at half time. As usual, they had only four benchmen, and used all of them by virtue of bringing on one of them with a minute to go: Boldmere, unusually, only used two of their replacements.
As the second half wore on, the Sphinx gradually gained the upper hand. Mikes conceded two yellow cards, while their opponents were covering defensively that well that Boldmere’s play makers sometimes couldn’t see where to play the ball. As time ticked away, they became more “hit and hope” from the back, while the visitors (sporting a snazzy hooped change outfit in Barcelona colours) were looking increasingly well connected. Charlie Woods, in the Sphinx goal, had only one slow shot to deal with in the second period.
Four minutes were added to each half, in the first to accommodate down time for injuries, in the second to account for substitutions. Sphinx grabbed the points two minutes from the end of added time. An inswinging corner was met at the far post by substitute Iddriss Fuseini, that was that. Joy from a decent turn out of away spectators, who feel their team are on an upward trajectory; while Mikes supporters have now seen three defeats in their last four League games.
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Ben George; Demico Burton; George Cleet; Pierre Phillips; Mason Rees; Jake Wilkes; Stephen Palmer (Lewis Allison 70); Anjeolaoluwa Adamu (Charlie Manners 52); Hisham Chiha; Theo Rowe. Subs. not used: Corey Cooper; Tyler Donaldson; Nathan Oyemade.
Coventry Sphinx: Charlie Woods; Kyle Burke; Finlay Shorrock; Jack Downes; Louis Guest (Patrick Zito 36); Jamie Draper; Roan Newey (Alex Lock 65); Callum Woodward; Harry Wakefield (Damian Kelly 90+5); Kyle Carey; Luke Shearer (Iddriss Fuseini 46).