Northern Premier League | Midlands Division | Tuesday 24 September 2024

Mikes teach Students a lesson on the Road (main words supplied by Gordon Watson the Loughborough Secretary)

Boldmere St Michaels made the journey to Leicestershire on Tuesday evening to take on the newly promoted Loughborough Students in the Northern Premier League Midlands Division. The hosts are finding it difficult to gain league points at this early stage of the season after winning last season’s promotion play off final in the United Counties League. Points in their new league are proving hard to come by for the Scholars. The Mikes however have had a good start to the season and began the game in fifth position in the league table. The Mikes and the Scholars had not met each other in a game for five years since their Midland Football League days.

Boldmere St Michaels began the game well on the good surface at the University Stadium and enjoyed the majority of the early possession. Mikes Theo Rowe was proving a threat down the left side and he got in behind the Scholars defence to fire a low shot at goal which was well saved by Callaghan in the Loughborough goal. As the game progressed Boldmere were having the majority of the possession and they eventually took the lead on 25 minutes when a corner from the left cleared the pack but was turned into his own net by Joshua Strouts at the back post. Four minutes later the Mikes had a second goal ruled out for offside following a late flag from the Referee’s Assistant. The Students started to come more into the game after the half hour mark but their attacks often broke down in the final third with the ball running on through to Jonathan Brown who remained largely untroubled in the Mikes goal. As the half time interval approached Daniel Gyasi was flattened by Charlie Callaghan. It had to be a penalty but referee Beard awarded a corner to the surprise of everyone present.
A single goal lead did not represent the Mikes superiority, surely a repeat of the Rugby game was not to revisit the Boldmere lads?

Loughborough made a couple of changes at the interval and raided well down the right wing on occasions. The second half followed a similar pattern to the first half with the Mikes enjoying large amounts of possession once again. The Scholars did begin to press forward and had a number of attacks which tested the Boldmere defence. After one attack Loughborough’s Sam Fielding hit a low shot towards goal which was beaten away to his right by Jonathan Brown. The game was now moving from end to end and on 61 minutes Boldmere St Michaels scored a second goal following a cross shot from the left by Theo Rowe taking a slight a deflection off a Loughborough defender.
Callum North found the net again shortly afterwards but a foul on Callaghan by Liam Murphy prior to the finish saw it ruled out.
There were several substitutions as the final quarter played out and it was the students who probably should have scored late on but two shots were dragged across the face of the goal when the net seemed begging.

The game ended in a deserved 2-0 victory for the Mikes in front of a healthy crowd of 156. The win moved the Mikes up to third place in the NPL Midlands Division table. 

Loughborough Students: Charlie Callaghan, Max Prickett-Reed, Joseph Fountain, Samuel Fielding, Richard Allen, Joseph Akinsamni, Marcus Gilpin (Max McCoy 46), Halim Bangura, Joshua Strouts, Quinton Zolani Dlodlo (Sam George Williams 46), Gio Lemonakis (Thomas Butler 62). Subs not used: Steven Bessent, Felipe Morales Moya

Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown, Lewis Allison, Corey Cooper (Sean Devlin 90), George Cleet, Joe Hull, Daniel Atkins (Kyle Burke 77), Theo Rowe (Jake Collins 90+3), Hisham Chiha, Liam Murphy, Callum North (Alfie Taylor 85), Daniel Gyasi. Sub not used: Harry Sweeney