Walsall Senior Cup Second Round Tuesday 16 December 2025

Would this game finish? Fog hung menacingly across the park, and got palpably worse over the first ten minutes. The Scholars had more of the early pressure, but you noticed the similarity in styles of the two teams. All went smoothly until the eleventh minute, when overelaborate back line passing conceded a corner. You had that sinking feeling…and once again, a corner from the left produced a goal from the right. Initially, a shot rapped the left-hand post…flew across the goal mouth…and there was Nathan Cameron to fire home from the right. If you or I, dear reader, had a pound for every time this had happened this season…

The lead was doubled with twenty-seven minutes on the clock. A precisely timed run by Ty Webster sprang the offside trap, and a decisive centre was swept home by Luke Yates: in anyone’s book, an excellent goal. After some more ping pong round the Boldmere box, Ben George picked up a nasty bump just above the left eye, which eventually saw him taken off. We had three extended stoppages for injury in the first half, but surprisingly our official only added four minutes added time. Half time: 2-0.

Mercifully, the fog lifted somewhat during the interval, concentrating itself on the Mikes’ rear left flank. Our referee had, meanwhile, requested we use yellow balls from hereon: the Chasetown ladies’ equipment was raided for them! Two excellent Jonathan Brown saves within two minutes soon kept the score as it was, and Freddie Cockerell was looking persistently lively up at the front: it took a reflex save from young keeper Harley Gray to stop a lob which would have halved the deficit.

At this point, there came a mysterious break in play which only the initiated would understand. It involved our referee making unfathomable arm signals, waving a yellow card (to whom, it was not clear), and going to have a leisurely chat with the benches. Once we resumed, substitutes began to appear. A superb last-ditch tackle prevented Max Chimenes putting the hosts further ahead, and Gray dived to the foot of his right-hand post to deny Cockerell.

The Mikes had a better second half, though they lost more fifty-fifties than they won. Chasetown combining consistently down their left, a mass of orange legs kept an ever dangerous Webster at bay, and a couple of “Oh”s from the home support signalled balls flying across the visitors’ frame. Boldmere nearly pulled one back, with five seconds to go; but the final score was an accurate reflection of the night as a whole.

Chasetown: Harley Gray; Mitch Clarke; Joe Dunne (Zach Findlay, 20); Lewis Newman; Nathan Cameron; Sam Wilding (Jack Langstone, 66); Brandon Newell; Dan Clarkson (Joey Burlington, 81); Max Chimenes; Ty Webster; Luke Yates (Tom Thorley, 66). Sub. not used: Kieran Fenton

Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Kye Bilton; Aris Christophorou; Daniel O’Callaghan; Ben George (Jordan Gough, 44); Connor Armstrong; Kyle Byrne (Nathan Oyemade, 46); Fraser Doyle (Pierre Phillips, 75); Charlie Manners (Matt Greenway, 61); Freddie Cockerell; Ben Lund.