Loughborough Dynamo 2-0 The Mikes

Both teams nominated an unchanged line up from their previous games - the hosts after losing 4-0, their guests after winning 3-0. You wouldn’t have guessed from the first half which team was recovering from a reverse, and who had been victors. The Moes were by some distance the more connected outfit, combining smoothly and doing all the early pressing. Charlie Emery made two stops in the first seven minutes before a pinpoint centre was put home by Evan Garnett, to give Loughborough the lead. The Mikes, by contrast, seemed short of ideas, with hopeful upfield punts often going straight to an opponent. Further chances came the homesters’ way, the speedy Rio Molyneaux giving Harry Sweeney plenty to think about all afternoon. Appeals for a penalty were turned down at both ends, a fine Emery save thwarting Charlie Carter’s twenty-yard effort, with the half hour just gone. Boldmere slowly pulled themselves into the contest, a classic Owen Parry finish from an excellent through ball denied by Lewis King’s legs. A turning point came in a strange way, thirty-seven minutes gone. A desperate Jack Byrne lunge caught his opponent half way up the shin - and Boldmere were down to ten men. Why is it teams often play better with ten men than they do with eleven? Anyway, the resulting free kick nearly saw the Leicestershire men go further ahead; but at half time, the score remained 1-0.
Two Mikes substitutions were made during the break, and the newcomers helped to turn the tide. It immediately needed an athletic save to stop a Ricardo Dudley header. The Loughborough siege continued at first, Parry and Sweeney gaining a yellow for bringing men down as they were running clear. Once Garnett had skied a clear chance from eight yards, the Mikes looked increasingly likely to gain a share of the spoils. A succession of corners, and long Sweeney throws, began to pour towards the home goal; but just as the Mikes had defended their net the previous Saturday, sinking back in numbers, so Dynamo, who’d shown themselves proficient in denying their guests shots at goal throughout, kept blocking, and hacking the ball away. With the clock ticking down, the thing you fear when you throw your troops forward happened. Loughborough had posed a threat down their right all game, and a lightning run finished with substitute Mo Bangura turning the resultant centre home, from close in. One week you establish an early lead, and successfully defend it…the next week, the opposition do exactly the same to you. That’s football!

Loughborough Dynamo: Lewis King; Taylor Anderson; Jonathan White; Charlie Carter; Mitchell Robinson; Gianluca Bucci; Connor Furey (Cam Moore 75); Robert Norris; Evan Garnett; Rio Molyneaux (Mo Bangura 81); George Ball (Jack Gibson 88).
Sub. not used: Josh Mee.
Boldmere St Michaels: Charlie Emery; Lewis Allison (Ricardo Dudley 45); Harry Sweeney; Joe Hull; Harry Craven; Jack Byrne; Callum Ballinger (O’Shane Stewart 45); Owen Parry; Andre Brown; Ben Usher-Shipway; Johnny Johnston (Callum Gittings 70).
Subs. not used: Ross Evans; Callum North.