Lye Town 0 – 2 Boldmere St Michaels
Northern Premier League Midland Division Saturday 12 April 2025
After a disappointing defeat a week earlier to Coleshill Town, the Mikes travelled to relegation threatened Lye Town who were seeking a first win since 21 December. Kieron Berry was absent through injury being replaced by John McHugh whilst the substitutes bench showed three changes Kye Bilton, Pierre Phillips and Chairman’s son Red Simmons making up the quintet with Danny Wood and Zachary Binns.
After a long period with no rain the pitch was rock hard and it was hard to imagine a flowing game of football resulting from the afternoon’s action. Boldmere created a few problems themselves in the early exchanges passing the ball towards their own goal when the pitch demanded that play took place in the opponent’s half. Jonathan Brown and Ben George suffered from the difficult bounce early doors and Jake Allen took some time to settle against the lively Joe Palmer attacking him down Lye’s right flank. Several home corners resulting largely from Palmer’s efforts failed to produce any serious threat to Brown. On the other hand, the Mikes presented little threat although a minor dust up midway through the half resulted in yellow cards for Joe Burroughs and Charlie Manners. It was little surprise to the sparse crowd that the interval arrived with the scoreline blank.
To the Boldmere faithful it seemed that the half time talk from the management had emphasised the need to get the ball forward early and behind the home defence. Burly centre forward Kevin Ngombi particularly started to menace and threaten the Lye goal and he was on the end of good work by Frankie Ealing down the right to force home from close range six minutes after the break. Boldmere dominated from thereon in and Ngombi could consider himself unlucky when foiled by two brilliant Ben Newey saves. A further chance saw him beat his nemesis but pull the ball wide of the left-hand post. The Mikes needed a second to prevent a nervous ending and it arrived on 74 minutes following further good work by Ealing; breaking into the penalty his shot may have found the net or the lurking Ngombi but was turned into his own net by the unlucky Burroughs.
Given the recent concession of late goals it did not necessarily mean the game was over, indeed it need a brilliant last-ditch tackle by the final substitute Pierre Phillips to preserve a rare clean sheet for Boldmere. The win meant that thoughts by the club secretary that we were not quite safe from relegation were finally banished. Meanwhile Lye face a three-way dog fight with Rugby Town and Bedworth United to avoid one of the remaining two relegation places.
Lye Town: Ben Newey, Elliott Ball, Dan Cartwright, Sam Hall, Joe Burroughs, Michael Adanusi (Alfie Steward 64), Joe Palmer (Cameron Phillip 87), Denis Digie, Josh McKenzie (Boubacar Diallo 72), Jack Fletcher, Ethan Moran (Alfie Didlock 76). Sub not used: Nathaniel Dixon
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown, Lewis Allison, Jake Allen (Pierre Phillips 85), George Cleet, Demico Burton (Zachary Binns 85), Ben George, Nathan Oyemade (Kye Bilton 85), John McHugh (Danny Wood 67), Kevin Ngombi, Charlie Manners, Frankie Ealing (Red Simmons 76)