Northern Premier League | Midland Division | Saturday 10 August 2024
The Mikes made hard work of beating promoted newcomers Racing, after sprinting into a two-goal half time lead, which could have been five by the break. Ex-Mike Ryan Nesbitt started for our guests, former Church Roaders Josh McKenzie and Ryan Andrews coming on later.
With only three minutes gone, Boldmere were ahead. A well worked left wing move found Sean Devlin thirty yards out. His low, slow shot passed the unsighted Sam Lomax to put Boldmere ahead. It needed a fine diving Lomax save to deny Daniel Gyasi, and a close call from Devlin went just wide, before a corner was put back to Gyasi, who fired home accurately from twenty yards, to double the home lead. Massed legs were denying the visitors whenever they came within sniffing distance of the Boldmere net, while the Mikes continued to threaten, a Theo Rowe swerver shaving the bar, before he hit the post after dribbling through the entire visiting defence. The threats kept coming. Harry Sweeney skimmed the woodwork from the area’s edge; Gus Sanches ran through the middle, and missed narrowly; and right on the break, Gyasi nearly broke the horizontal, with one that somehow didn’t go in. Half time: 2-0. This was going to be plain sailing for the Mikes, wasn’t it….wasn’t it?
Racing Club stuck to their game after the interval, passing, passing, and passing…slowly sending the Mikes to sleep, like Dorothy and friends, staggering through the poppy field on their way to the Wizard of Oz. As time rolled on, you asked yourself, “Could the Racers nick one back, and even get an equaliser by the close?” A VAR-style linesman helped the home off side trap; but it needed a fine block by Jonathan Brown, thirty minutes from time, to deny Connor Taylor, once he’d sprung it. By now, substitute James Snedden (you can evidently use five substitutes, now) was prompting Warwick intelligently, and Josh McKenzie and Harry Craven were soon called to have a little chat with our ref: not surprising, for two forceful characters!
Twelve minutes before standard time ended, the dam broke. Connor Taylor chested home from close in. The hefty, aimless boot was now being increasingly used by a massed Boldmere rearguard. We’d had an abundance of replacements, and our new score board indicated six added minutes, the last two of which passed in comical fashion as activity centred around the corner post by Experts’ Corner. The final whistle went – to Boldmere’s ultimate relief. They’d made hard work of it.
P.S. The visiting full back Callum Carsley is the son of newly appointed England caretaker manager Lee Carsley. His other son Luke Carsley played a few games for us last season.
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Joe Hull; Harry Sweeney; George Cleet; Harry Craven; Ollie West; Gustavo Sanches (Lewis Allison 71); Sean Devlin (Joe Daley 75); Liam Murphy (Alfie Taylor 87); Daniel Gyasi; Theo Rowe (Jake Collins 87). Sub. not used: Kyle Burke.
Racing Club Warwick: Sam Lomax; Kyle Barnett; Callum Carsley; Josh Willis (Ryan Andrews 86); Kelvin Langmead; Declan Peart (James Snedden 52); Archie Hamp (James Hancocks 74): Ruben Freeman; Greg Mills (Josh McKenzie 45); Ryan Nesbitt (Ryan Edmunds 69); Connor Taylor.