The Mikes 0-1 Coleshill Town

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 upfield, 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 their wingers and parked the bus. A foot, a knee, or something or other, got in the way of Boldmere’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.

“Can we go to the Villa, daddy?”, said my son, long ago, “It’s free.” We did. The Villa were playing the Crazy Gang. The Villa played cultured footie, the Gang banged it down the middle, and won. A mirror image of today’s encounter, it was infinitely forgettable. The Mikes had most of the play without troubling a solid Coleshill rearguard and in truth neither goalkeeper had to make a save of note throughout the entire ninety minutes

Boldmere St Michaels: Tommy Jackson; Adrian Owiredu-Gyamera (Callum Gittings 45); Harry Sweeney; Joe Hull; Jack Byrne; Johnny Johnston; Owen Parry; Andre Brown (Ben Usher-Shipway 45); Daniel Gyasi; Lewis Allison (Callum North 86).
Subs. not used: Callum Ballinger; Pierre Phillips.
Coleshill Town: James Behan; Ben Maginness; James Bowen; Gio Dainty; Kane Auld; Niall Rowe; Elliot Ball (James Spruce 64); Alex Tomlinson; Jonathan Letford (Kobe Hall 79); George Washbourne; Ewan Edwards (Ryan Snape 57).
Subs. not used: Chris Cowley; Joel Chadwick.