The Mikes 3-0 Loughborough Dynamo

The Mikes got their League season up and running with an ultimately comfortable win over their visitors. William Shorrock made his debut on the left wing, while youngsters Liam Wilson and Callum North featured on the bench.

The first twenty minutes were so nondescript that your recorder could find nothing to record! Thereafter, the game got going. Just after the quarter mark, a long ball out of defence ended with a smart one-two between Shorrock and Jamie Spiers, completed by Shorrock firing home from a narrow angle. Three minutes later, Owen Parry nearly doubled the Mikes’ account as his effort from inside the centre circle flew over the bar. Goalkeepers will wander upfield…Perhaps it was as well, once we’d turned the half hour: Dan Moore had to clear from outside his box as bulky striker Jack Gibson closed in on a through ball. Chances were made at both ends. Lewis Allison perhaps would have scored if he’d shot across the keeper from eight yards, after being set up by good work from Jamie Spiers, while an attempted Gibson bicycle kick from close in had to be scrambled away. A low Spiers shot led to desperate defence in the visitors’ goal mouth, before the ball was hoofed away. The Mikes were left thinking that, by now, they should be more than one goal ahead. Half time: 1-0.

Only two bookings were made in what was, essentially, a clean game. Boldmere’s narrow advantage, however, led to continual barging and shoving, and tempers began to shorten. As we arrived at the three-quarter mark, Dynamo began to press strongly, gaining three corners in a row. Were we going to see a repeat of our previous game, with the Mikes fiercely defending a one goal margin for the rest of the encounter? Out of nowhere, Boldmere relieved the pressure. A smart interception by Shorrock was passed to Spiers who, finding himself in space, ran fifty yards at the Loughborough rearguard and found the net from fifteen yards. With nine minutes ordinary time left, a header from a corner scraped the Boldmere bar; but it was going to be the hosts’ night. Six minutes later, good work down the right found Parry in the box: he converted from twelve yards out. A little play acting could have made it four. Parry tumbled under a challenge just outside the penalty area, Harry Sweeney firing the resultant loose ball over the post/bar angle. It wouldn’t have counted: our referee booked our Owen for simulation. A Mitch Botfield volley then fizzed past the post, and that was the end of the action. The first points of the campaign had been won.

Boldmere St Michaels: Daniel Moore; Ricardo Dudley; Tazivaishe Chibaya; Jack Byrne; Harry Craven; James Mace; Lewis Allison; Mitch Botfield; Jamie Spiers (Matthew Funge 83); Owen Parry; William Shorrock (Harry Sweeney 83).
Subs. not used: Khaellem Bryce Bailey-Nichols; Liam Wilson; Callum North.
Loughborough Dynamo: Lewis King; Connor Furey; Finlay Shorrock; Chad Timson; Mitchell Robinson (Charlie Jemson 39); David Chapman; Tom Marshall; Robert Norris (George Herbert 80); Jack Gibson; Alex Marshall (Mo Bangura 59); George Ball.
Sub. not used: Reece Giles.