Boldmere St Michaels 0 v 1 Coleshill Town

[Alan Beckett]

Saturday 23rd March 2024
Northern Premier League Midland Division
Boldmere St Michaels 0 v 1 Coleshill Town
Scorer: Elliot Ball.
Attendance: 214.


Teams:
Mikes: Tommy Jackson, Adrian Owiredu-Gyamera (Callum Gittings), Harry Sweeny, Joseph Hull, Harry Craven, Jack Byrne, Johnny Johnston, Owen Parry, Adre Brown (Ben Usher-Shipway), Daniel Gyasi, Lewis Allison (Callum North). Subs not used Callum Balinger, Pierre Phillips.


Colemen: James Behan, Ben Maginness, James Bowen, Gio Dainty, Kane Auld, Niall Rowe, Elliot Ball (James Spruce), Alex Tomkinson, Jonathan Letford (Kobe Hall), George Washbourne, Ewan Edwards (Ryan Snape). Subs not used Chris Cowley, Joel Chadwick.


NON LEAGUE PAPER WROTE
Elliot Ball's tenth-minute winner made the difference as Coleshill eked out a win at Boldmere. Ball lost his marker and rounded the home keeper to score virtually the only shot of the game. The Mikes had been pressing strongly, but the Colemen harried, hassled, and defended stoutly. Long periods of Boldmere pressure came and went, but the visitors, bringing off their wingers and parking the bus as the second half progressed, rarely looked in danger of surrendering their lead. Boldmere, passed neatly but looked puzzled over what to do next as Coleshill saw the win out.
Star Man: Kane Auld (Coleshill)
Entertainment: **


MATCH REPORT
Taken from Boldmere St Michaels Programme
The weather matched the Mikes fortunes, beginning with pleasant sunshine, clouding over, and ending with an uncomfortable wind. A warning of what was to come arrived in the first minute, Harry Craven nearly robbed of the ball right at the back. No matter - there followed ten minutes of intense Boldmere pressure, Andre Brown surely coming close to scoring, had he not got his feet in a tangle, after nine of them. On those occasions when the ball headed up field, the visitors had obviously been instructed to run at their hosts' back line - and with ten minutes gone, it paid off. Speedy winger Elliot Ball latched on to a ball from the heart of his beleaguered defence, rounded the stranded Tommy Jackson, and pushed the ball home. No matter! The Mikes had eighty minutes left to rectify the situation, but.....for the rest of the half, nothing happened, save that (apart from Brown heading a free kick just wide, three minutes from the break) the Mikes spent an unconscionable amount of time passing the ball across their back line.
The Management, hoping to pep things up, brought on Callum Gittings and Ben Usher-Shipway at half time. The Mikes resumed the assault, Owen Parry being only inches short of a centre from the left, nine minutes in. The Colemen, meanwhile, realised that holding back the home tide was increasingly possible, so took off teir wingers and parked the bus. A foot, a knee, or something or other, got in the way of Boldmer's attacks. The hour approaching and, the score staying the same, rising urgency marked the home effort, but at times, facing a Red Wall, they looked genuinely puzzled as to what to do next. Content to bang the ball anywhere up the park, the nearest the visitors came to conceding an equaliser arrived on ninety minutes, Parry screwing an Usher-Shipway cross wide from seven yards. "That was the chance", said a voice from the Stand - and so it proved to be.