Northern Premier League | Midland Division | Saturday 21 September 2024
Ahead after six minutes, Boldmere were in front for a further eighty-two – by which time, they could have had the result sewn up. Edwin Ahenkorah (who didn’t come on) was the only opponent with past Boldmere connections.
In balmy opening sunshine, the usual opening inconsequentials were ended with an intelligent move between Theo Rowe, Harry Sweeney and Liam Murphy, who poked home to put the Mikes in front. On the quarter hour, Lewis Allison, who had a testing afternoon marking Harrison Nee, earned the first of the game’s four yellow cards, for downing his man just outside the box’s corner. An even game between two equally matched teams developed, the first half producing three serious efforts on goal for the Mikes, two for their hosts. As we approached the interval, the Light Blues, who’d pulled themselves into the game after an untidy start, began to apply pressure, with the result that the crowd (a little small by Valley Stadium standards?) began to become vocal. With two minutes to go, the Mikes faithful were convinced they should have been given a penalty, when Ollie West was hacked down in the box; but the ball had left him by the time this had happened, and the pattern of play went on, uninterrupted. Half time: 0-1.
A gusty wind had sprung up just before the break – and this brought us ten minutes’ heavy rain. Would this influence the game, and the result? Time would tell…Anyway, Rugby began by playing more cultured, passing football than they’d produced in the first period, and within a minute, heavyweight striker Michael Taylor’s lob was pushed over the bar for a corner. The crowd had, by now, retreated to the capacious terrace behind the visitors’ goal, and saw Taylor come close to heading home a penetrative Trey Charles cross.
Sixty five minutes in, a Rowe shot was parried away to Alfie Taylor, whose skied effort signalled a period of Boldmere dominance. A fine tackle dispossessed Rowe, when well placed; Hisham Chiha spurned a definite chance; an “Oooh” followed Sean Devlin’s shot across goal…and you felt that, by now, the Mikes should have put the game to bed. Had that heavy rain made the pitch, and the ball, hard to control? One or two of the home support had drifted away to the bar by now, and they missed the equaliser when it arrived, two minutes from the end of standard time. A corner fell to Harrison Nee at the far post, and he pushed the ball gently home. The crowd were in full cry by now, and the homesters were striving for a winner. Their best chance came when Nee pierced the Boldmere back line, and Jonathan Brown was left stumbling in his wake on the slippery grass; but, somehow, Nee contrived to place his acute-angled effort right across the goal mouth. The game’s tension was now resulting in some gratuitous bumping and barging, and things somehow boiled over by the players’ entrance, ending with Nee seeing a red card, right on time.
A draw was a fair result, on the balance of play as a whole; but Boldmere must be regretting the chances they missed, to make three points safe.
Rugby Town: Paul Hathaway; Dan Summerfield: Damien Osoimoejiokhian; Liam Francis; Josh Thomas (Barry Fitzharris, 80); Caine Elliott (Ethan O’Toole, 67); Trey Charles; Chris Clements; Michael Taylor (Hilton Arthur, 75); Tayo Tucker; Harrison Nee. Subs. not used: Edwin Ahenkorah; Justin Mensah.
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Lewis Allison (Daniel Atkins, 53); Harry Sweeney; George Cleet; Joe Hull; Kyle Burke; Theo Rowe; Ollie West (Sean Devlin, 58); Liam Murphy (Jake Collins, 84); Daniel Gyasi; Alfie Taylor (Hisham Chiha, 68). Sub. not used: Callum North.