Northern Premier League Midland Division Saturday 7 February 2026

Pedro Lima and Charlie Manners were back on duty after their suspensions, while Jordan Gough
was still absent, after his injury against Rugby Town. Fraser Doyle now has his arm in plaster, after
the previous Wednesday’s game: it’s not yet established whether his elbow is broken, or was just
dislocated. After his appendectomy in mid-week, President Parso was present, albeit sitting down
rather than in his usual standing posture. “Good grief” was your correspondent’s wife’s texted
response: she’s no sense of priorities, that lady. It was heartening to see a good number of
Boldmere woolly hats present among the 300 plus crowd.

Was this match going to be another crashing, bashing encounter? One minute in, Pedro Lima was
crudely hauled over near our opponents’ corner flag, under the linesman’s nose; but no foul was
observed. Fortunately, a proper game emerged, full of incident and interest. Coming down the
slope, the Mikes pierced the City’s back four at regular intervals, Toli Omotola netting from an
offside position after four minutes, Harry Crook soon thwarted by Brendon Bunn (also being
offside, but not flagged for). The chances kept coming, five shots from a variety of sources – Omotola blazing over on the run; a thirty-yard Kye Bilton shot scraping the right-hand post; Pedro
Lima heading over from a corner; Kyle Byrne taking paint off the bar from way out on the right;
and James Tague nearly scoring from nearly forty yards – all going close in the next quarter of an
hour.

Thirty minutes gone, the hosts were gathering strength, the Mikes having to adopt reverse gear,
Harvey Smith’s sliding effort shaving Jonno Brown’s right post as the interval arrived. We therefore
trooped off goalless at half time: would the visitors live to regret the chances that had gone to
waste?

Nerves were settled four minutes after the break. The ball ricocheted about from a Boldmere
corner…and Lima stabbed home from five yards. Once again, shots from a variety of Mikes just
missed the target, and our hosts were having to contain us by dint of repeated fouls. With half an
hour left, the drizzle turned into serious rain, and it needed a diving Brown save to keep Boldmere
ahead. Even so, they were still producing more scoring attempts than the opposition; and, with
ten minutes of standard time left, the game was made safe when a well worked move down the
right ended with Tague opening his Boldmere account, from twelve yards. A low shot from Harry
Crook, from forty yards out, was soon scrambled round the post by a diving Bunn. The result now
settled, youngster Lewis Capper-Imms could be given a few minutes’ more first team experience.
Five minutes of added time were played out without any further alarms, and another precious
three points had been added to the effort to stave off relegation.

Lichfield City: Brendon Bunn; Josh Mansell; Harry Eden; Jamie Spiers; Leighton Mcmenemy; Charlie
Footes (Lewi Burnside 71); Jack Edwards; Kieran Francis (Hisham Chiha 46); Harvey Smith; Luca
Taylor (Tom Brown 46); Luke Childs. Subs. not used: John Mills; Ben Jevons.

Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Kye Bilton; Pedro Lima; Daniel O’Callaghan; Aris Christophorou; Connor Armstrong (Charlie Manners 62); Jack Burgess; James Tague (Lewis Capper-Imms 89); Tolani Omotola (Ben Lun, 73); Harry Crook (Freddie Cockerell 85); Kyle Byrne (Frankie Ealing
77).