by Peter Scherer (Images: Steve Ingers)
A second half penalty robbed Mickleover of victory against FC United of Manchester, after Dylan Edawards had given them a first half lead.
Starting line-up: 1-Yusuf Mersin 2-Jake Bennett 3-Ryan Wilson 4-Will Atkinson 5-George Wilkinson 6-Tom Senior 7-Brandon Ferron 8-Curtis Weston 9-Andy Dales 10-Dylan Edwards 11-Marcus Barnes. Subs: Cieron Keane, Stuart Beavon, Gabby Adebambo, Josh Maskall, Toby Smith.
The was little separate the teams for the first 20 minutes, before Mickleover had their first real chance when Edwards crossed from the right, found Barnes’ head, but his effort was too high to challenge keeper O’Keefe.
But just after the half hour mark it was Sports that broke the deadlock, when Edwards chested the ball past O’Keefe into the bottom right hand corner, to make it 1-0 after 33 minutes.
Mickleover finished the half the stronger too, highlighted by some telling runs on the wings by Ferron and Dales, while Bennett, Wilkinson, Senior and Wilson held firm in defence.
But there was a late scare when a 42nd minute free kick from the visitors caught Mersin at his best, with a brilliant save from a deflected effort.
Early into the second half Senior pulled off last ditch saving tackle to keep Sports ahead, but the game had become more end to end, with FC United shooting just wide of the left-hand post after 50 minutes.
But two minutes later Mersin was penalised for a challenge on Donohue, and Le Fondre stepped up to convert the penalty 1-1.
On the hour mark Maskall and Beavon replaced Barnes and Ferron, but two minutes later Edwards nearly restored the advantage in Mickleover’s favour, only for Palinkas to make a goal like clearance and keep it level pegging.
Sport made their final changes after 76 minutes when the had working Weston and Atkinson were replaced by Keane and Adebambo.
But the score remained 1-1 and sports now look forward to their trip to Hebburn on Saturday.
