Northern Premier League | Midland Division | Saturday 12 October 2024
The Mikes paraded two new signings: striker Charlie Manners (arriving from the fallout from recent events at Walsall Wood) and midfielder Thomas Edge. Callum Ballinger was the only ex-Mike in the home ranks. The game was played in benign sunshine, but the morning had been rainy, making the surface somewhat skiddy, while a rising breeze sometimes played aerial gymnastics with high balls.
Sphinx held more of the early territory, and had a penalty appeal turned down eight minutes in, when Alex Lock went down in the box. This was a scrapping, scrambling encounter throughout, but played in a sporting spirit: we had to wait ten minutes for the first foul. As in previous fixtures, Theo Rowe featured continuously in the first half (and very little in the second) and saw a determined run ended with a fizzer turned over the bar. Maybe because they’d got two unfamiliar faces in their ranks, Boldmere seemed to find it difficult to work the ball out of defence, and continually put the ball back to Jonathan Brown, to punt it upfield. An “Oooh” was raised when Ryley Nicholson hammered a thirty yarder just wide of the post. Six minutes from the interval, it was Boldmere’s turn to have a penalty appeal turned down, and the teams trooped off goalless at half time.
The second half was only six minutes old when Rowe cut inside his marker and unleashed an unstoppable shot from fifteen yards, which Oliver West got a touch to, to put the Mikes ahead. Interestingly, this began a process of the hosts bringing on all five substitutes, whereas the Mikes uncharacteristically only used one. Play flew from one end to the other as the teams strove for mastery, both sides mixing brute force, skill and smooth interplay, all of it at furious pace. Both goals survived close encounters of the near miss kind until, with eleven minutes of standard time left, newly arrived Roan Newey steamed down the right, and progressed into the visitors’ area. A mistimed challenge from George Cleet brought him down…the crowd gave out a howl…and the spot was being pointed to. The distinctively coiffed Shay Willock made no mistake with the penalty, and the scores were level. This brought on some enthusiastic ultraring from the small band of ultras gathered near the goal.
The light blues now pressed for the winner, and with two minutes’ standard time left, ninety seconds of sheer mayhem saw the ball bobble round the Mikes’ goal area, somehow without going in. The two teams fought it out to the death, proceedings regularly punctuated by injuries; but no further goals resulted. A draw, one thinks, was a fair result.
Coventry Sphinx: Charlie Woods; Ryley Nicholson (Joe Pursey, 30); Finlay Shorrock; Callum Ballinger (Callum Martin, 77); Patrick Zito; Louis Guest; Andre Williams (Roan Newey, 77); Callum Woodward; Alex Lock (Shay Willock, 54); Kyle Carey; Stanley Dube (Jordan Hayward, 68).
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Lewis Allison; Corey Cooper; George Cleet; Joe Hull; Oliver West; Theo Rowe; Thomas Edge; Charlie Manners; Daniel Gyasi; Jake Collins (Hisham Chiha, 67). Subs. not used: Harry Sweeney; Liam Murphy; Alfie Taylor; Kyle Burke.