The Mikes 3-0 Lye Town

Three excellent goals gave the Mikes victory over current leaders Lye, in a game closer than the final score would suggest. Former Mikes Oliver West and Matt Funge featured for the visitors, while Lewis Allison came in for the Mikes, replacing Ricardo Dudley, recipient of two yellow cards the previous Saturday. Winning the toss, on a surprisingly balmy December day, Lye wisely decided to play with the low winter sun behind them.

Eighteen minutes in, Owen Parry seized on a sloppy back pass to Ben Newey, his interception curving just wide. For half an hour, nothing else happened except prolonged header tennis, long balls forward and misplaced passes. With the half hour gone, a quickly taken free kick found Harry Sweeney. His searching diagonal pass was met by an onrushing Ross Evans, who fired home his first Boldmere goal - this, despite some momentary indecision as to whether or not he’d been given offside. Despite being a gritty, physical encounter, the game was played in an excellent spirit, the only yellow card, Harry Sweeney, coming seven minutes before the break, for a very late challenge.

As may be expected, Parry was proving to be a slippery customer, marker Adam Meacham’s attentions describable as “all embracing”. “He must give a penalty sooner or later”, pronounced one observer, as Parry went down in the box five minutes after the break. Early season Boldmere old boy Matt Funge missed a reasonable chance to equalise before Mikes were back on the attack. A Parry blaster was pushed out by Newey, and scrambled away; but once the hour had passed, the inevitable happened. A long throw saw the ball bobbling around the Flyers’ box. Kai Knight sent a rebound into the mixer - and an acrobatic Parry scissors kick put the Mikes two up. The three-quarter mark gone, Ben Usher-Shipway had to hobble off, with what looked like hamstring trouble. With a quarter of an hour to go, a Sweeney cannonball was pushed away by Newey; but with two minutes’ ordinary time left, Callum Ballinger scored his first for the Mikes, a long ball forward shot home from fifteen yards. Lye never let their heads drop, and some substandard home passing nearly saw them pull one back; but their day was summed up when Maxwell Ngbeken’s shot from twenty yards curved away from the frame. Lye slip to third following this defeat, Boldmere staying in thirteenth place.

Boldmere St Michaels: Callum Smith; Lewis Allison; Kai Knight; Joe Hull; Harry Craven; Jack Byrne; Ross Evans (Callum Ballinger 61); Callum Gittings; Owen Parry; Ben Usher-Shipway (Andre Brown 71); Harry Sweeney.
Subs. not used: Tazivaishe Chibaya; O’Shane Stewart; Romehl Critchlow.

Lye Town: Ben Newey; Dan Brookes; Nathan Kabeya; Oliver West (Harry Jennings 81); Adam Meacham; Sam Hall (Rio Sawyers 74); Matthew Funge (Ajay Adamu 70); Maxwell Ngbeken; Joe Palmer; Ben Billingham; Sam Tye.
Subs. not used: Bailey Storey; Nathan Scott.