Coleshill Town 0-4 The Mikes

Non-League football can be a roller coaster, with its peaks and troughs. Having overcome their early season woes, the Mikes are currently flying: the Colemen, having had a manager walking out at a moment’s notice, are having to rebuild, under veteran keeper Paul Hathaway. That they haven’t yet got the blend they’re looking for is witnessed to by the programme’s information - we haven’t got to Christmas yet, and they’ve used forty players.

You wouldn’t have noticed the difference throughout an untidy first half, for all that the Mikes edged it. Home centre half Harry Higginson felt himself hard done to when he was booked after only four minutes, following a late challenge on Owen Parry. Our referee kept things on a tight leash, and his early yellow card was justified by subsequent events: no one else earned one for the rest of the game. After an injury to Callum Smith, colliding with a colleague when trying to catch a centre, nothing happened…for twenty minutes. Half an hour just gone, the Mikes put together a flowing four man move down the right, and Jack Byrne (who featured frequently in first half attacks) slotted the resultant centre home, from twelve yards. Both keepers then took a knock as we neared half time; and Boldmere trooped off one goal to the good.

The hosts began the second half the stronger, a free kick on the goal line hacked away, for twenty-yard lurker Alex Tomkinson to fire one just wide of the angle. A portent of what was to come soon showed itself, however. Parry sprinted in from the right; and it took Lewis Fenney’s legs to deny him. Ross Evans was soon beating three men down the right wing, and a Ben Usher-Shipway effort flew across the goal mouth, as Boldmere began to find their rhythm. The second goal, though, came from nowhere, Parry firing into the bottom corner from twenty-five yards. After newcomer Callum Ballinger had come on for Ross Evans, three minutes later the process repeated itself, this time Parry latching on to a loose pass and hammering home from all of thirty-five yards out. With half an hour left, the Mikes could afford to play out time, and were now fizzing the ball around efficiently. Even so, they had time for a fourth goal, that man Parry completing his hat trick as the Mikes broke forward, the striker latching on to Ballinger’s pass with a quarter of an hour to go. Coleshill, to their credit, kept playing football, Ashton Demulder pulling a save out of Smith, a twenty-yarder flying over the bar. By now, however, the Mikes were seeing out time. A decent sized crowd of 175 had braved the Arctic conditions: the visiting supporters went home feeling the more warmed, wondering how Boldmere will fare when they take on the Division’s high flyers later in the campaign.

Coleshill Town: Lewis Fenney; Adrian Gyamera (Lewis Archer,80); Oscar Tonge; Alex Smith; Harry Higginson (Lamin Ceesay, 45); Niall Rowe; Ashton Demulder; Alex Tomkinson (Jack Whelan, 68); Jonathan Letford; George Washbourne; Chris Cowley.
Subs. not used: Aon Abbas; Ihsan Rehman.

Boldmere St Michaels: Callum Smith; Ricardo Dudley; Kai Knight; Joe Hull; Harry Craven; Jack Byrne; Ben Usher-Shipway (Andre Brown, 80); Callum Gittings; Owen Parry; Daniel Gyasi; Ross Evans (Callum Ballinger, 63).
Subs. not used: Harry Sweeney; Ryan Booth; Bekir Halil.