Sutton Coldfield Town 1 – 2 Boldmere St Michaels
Northern Premier League Midland Division Monday 21 April 2025
As may be expected from recent history, our hosts had no less than six ex-Mikes featuring in their squad. Boldmere, for their part, fielded two ex-Royals! The morning’s rain had given way to blissful sunshine, enjoyed by a 400+ crowd. Newcomer to the Mikes’ ranks was forward Kushal Phuyal – the first Nepalese to figure in Boldmere colours? Royals youngster Tom Hurley received the Supporters’ Player of the Year Award before kickoff.
A hustling, bustling, scrambling game emerged, the referee doing well, on the whole, to distinguish the muscular from the illegal. Sutton, who began with a period of sustained pressure, were smothering Boldmere’s movements, passing neatly, and putting in an impressive number of accurate cross field balls. The Mikes, meanwhile, were intercepting effectively. A physical game, where the bulk of Kevin Ngombi faced the attentions of former Church Roaders Pedro Lima and Luke McGinnell, boiled over on twenty-six minutes, the combined efforts of both teams preventing it becoming something cardable.
Despite all this effort, neither goal was threatened until the quarter mark, when a double tackle ricocheted the ball to Phuyal. Breaking into the box, rather than go straight for the net, he twice tried to feed the ball sideways, and the move ended with a harmless skier, well off target. Lack of confidence from a newcomer, maybe? Anyway, he was substituted by John McHugh once the half hour was passed.
The ball found the back of the net two minutes before the break. A long throw into the visitors’ area saw four headers ending with a swiveling Kory Burke firing home; but the offside flag (only the second given so far) was aloft, and we reached the interval goalless.
The second half began, like the first, in bumping, barging fashion. However, we were only four minutes in when Boldmere went ahead. Three accurate passes out of defence set up John McHugh, who ran through and slid the ball home clinically. Two minutes later, the territorial dominance the Royals had enjoyed was demonstrated, when Mikes gained their first corner! As battle continued, it was a mercy only four yellows were administered. We had a three-minute hiatus with three quarters of the game gone when, following a scramble in the Boldmere area, Sutton’s Reece Gibson and Boldmere’s Pierre Phillips both needed their heads bandaging. Gibson raised a cheer when he changed his blood-stained kit: fortunately, he’d got his underpants on!
The home frame was nearly breached twice with a quarter of an hour left; but goals in the last ten minutes often decide a result, and so it proved here. Sutton used only one substitute throughout the whole encounter, but the Mikes used all five. Now, for the first time in the clash, shots were being sent goalward; but the deadlock was broken on eighty-five minutes, McGinnell heading a corner home from the far post for the equaliser: only Sutton’s second attempt at goal.
Eight added minutes were eventually played, and after four of them, history was repeated, as a slick move out of defence was efficiently finished, this time by Ngombi. Great joy and hugging from his teammates! Could the homesters pull a goal back? The Mikes (after prolonged shouting at the linesman) replaced attacking substitute John McHugh with defender Jake Allen, as the Royals (including keeper James Wren) flooded forward. Jonathan Brown had to knee the ball away for a corner as his back line nearly buckled. The final trump eventually came, and the Mikes had gained revenge for the 4-1 drubbing they’d taken in the fog, back on Boxing Day.
Sutton Coldfield Town: James Wren; Tom Hurley; Jack Lynch; Pedro Lima; Luke McGinnell; Ryan Edmunds; Fraser Doyle; Alex Tomkinson (Kaden May 79); Reece Gibson; Kory Burke; Cameron Collins. Subs. not used: Remmie Birch; Shane Byrne; Kyle Burke; Archie Hill.
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Lewis Allison; Pierre Phillips; George Cleet; Demico Burton (Red Simmons 88); Ben George; Nathan Oyemade; Kushal Phuyal (John McHugh 31, Jake Allen 90+4); Kevin Ngombi; Charlie Manners (Jake Wilkes 83); Frankie Ealing (Zachary Binns 88).