by Peter Scherer

After a cautious start, four second half goals secured Mickleover’s place in the First Round draw of the FA Trophy.

Gaffer John McGrath made four changes from last Tuesdays line-up, as Isthmian League North side Dereham Town visited the Don Amott Arena.

The full starting line-up was 1-Joe Slinn 2-Jake Bennett 3-Alex Morris 4-Kemy Agustien 5-Pablo Mills 6- James Butler 7-George Milner 8-Mason Warren 9-Paddy Webb 10- Stuart Beavon 11-Aman Verma. Subs: Josh Satchwell, Ben Gowing, Andrew Wright, Phil Watt, Callum Hawkins.

The game had barely kicked off when Mickleover got off to flying start. A great through ball split the visitors defence wide open, leaving Webb with a shot just inside the box, which he buried in the bottom right hand corner, opening the scoring after three minutes 1-0.

There was almost a second for Mickleover after 12 minutes to, before the attacking stepped back a pace and Dereham began to settle.

But 20 minutes in and there was another chance, when Bennett put another dangerous ball into the box, but a Dereham defender managed to intercept before Webb was able to collect.

Webb’s pace continued to cause problems and he just missed out again in a one on one with Elliot Pride in the Dereham goal.

After a 10 minute lull in the pace, Webb was in again, shooting from inside the box, his effort was just wide of the right hand corner.

Three minutes later a Morris cross was deflected in the box, just out of Webb’s reach.

Dereham had the ball in the net just before half time, but was ruled out. Slinn had saved initially, but the ball ran into Toby Hilliard’s path in an offside position.

So half time 1-0, Mickleover had been in charge throughout, but could have more than one.

Wright was an early second half sub coming on for Agustien, before Rhys Logan had a run on goal for Dereham after 51 minutes but couldn’t finish.

Beavon was next to try his luck, with a 55^th minute half volley well over. But as Mickleover stepped up another gear, Wright lofted the ball to Webb and with just the keeper to beat, the striker placed it home from close range 2-0 after 57 mins.

Wright’s runs from midfield continued to cause havoc for the Dereham defence, and his cross into the box on the hour found Beavon at the far post, who despatched it into the roof of the net 3-0!

Back from injury Gowing came on for Milner and the Mickleover push continued. Webb had a chance of a hattrick when he fired the ball over from a tightening angle, but five minutes later Pride failed to deal with a low cross, leaving the ball at Beavon’s feet for an easy tap in the 77^th minute 4-0.

With Webb and Beavon both scoring two each, Beavon went off and Satchwell came on for the last nine minutes.

The teenage striker rewarded with his first senior goal on the 90 minute mark, after receiving from a corner.

It’s now back to NPL action at Nantwich on Tuesday, with one eye on the FA Trophy draw too, but all dependant on any decision over the lockdown restrictions.

The Sports Report is ready to view for today’s game. Click here

by Peter Scherer

This Saturday’s visitors to the Don Amott Arena in the FA Challenge Trophy are Dereham Town from the Isthmian League North.

Adam Gusterson and his assistant Olly Wills team are currently ninth in the table, with two wins and two draws from seven games.

They kicked off their season with a 3-2 FA Cup win against Whitton Utd in the Preliminary, before going down 2-0 at home to Canvey Island in the first qualifier.

Prior to drawing Mickleover in the FA Trophy, they visited Sutton Coldfield and returned home 3-2 victors.

After two defeats in their first two league games, they beat Cambridge City 1-0 at home and followed it with their first away win at Heybridge Swifts.

They have picked up points from home draws against Histon and Coggleshall Town, but lost 1-0 at Bury Town.

First choice goalkeeper is Elliot Pride, now in his fourth season with the club, having signed from Wroxham. He has also played for Great Yarmouth, Diss and Gorleston, but is nearing his 100^th start for Dereham.

Newcomers Ross Bilham and Joe Rider have made one start this season each. Bilham has played for a number of East Anglian teams, including Long Stratton, Spixworth Utd, Harleston and Thetford and is also a keen cricketer.

Although Matthew Castellan is a defender, he has scored seven goals in his 64 appearances, now into his fourth season. From a 12 year old at East Lynn he was a Cambridge Utd youth player, before moving to Downham Town.

Moving on to Swaffham, he then moved up to Kings Lynn. After injury, the Linnets loaned him to Dereham, making it permanent in 2019.

Charlie Dickerson has been part of the squad since 2018/19, having come through the teams Academy. He’s an England u/18 International defender too.

Rodrigo Ferreira and Dion Frary are also defenders. Frary is a long serving player with five seasons behind him before this campaign, totting up over 100 games, with eight goals. He also had a spell at Kings Lynn in between his time at Dereham.

The defensive line-up is completed by Jake Imrie, Thomas Matthews and assistant manager Olly Wills.

Imrie was a regular last season, having signed in June 2019 from Harleston. Matthews spent time in the Norwich City and QPR Academy, before playing for the New Saints and Airbus UK in the Welsh League. He came to Dereham part way through last season.

Wills has played a few games a year recently, becoming assistant manager in January 2019. He was a Norwich City Academy player but first came to Dereham for the 2005/6 season.

He later joined Harleston managing with Gusterson, before they both came back to Dereham.

Robbie Linford is a centre back or midfielder, and came through the clubs under 18 side, making his first team debut in 2015/16. He has also played for Stowmarket Town.

Tomas Snapkauskas debuted in October last year. A central defender/midfielder he played most of his football in Lithuania, but had a spell at Heart of Midlothian in 2010/11.

Team captain David Hinton is another one of the long serving players. He came from Wroxham in 2016 and made his debut against his former club, before becoming a first team regular over the last two seasons, with 13 goals in 85 games.

Another midfielder close to his 100^th game for the club is midfielder Rhys Logan. He came from Long Stratton in August 2015.

Former Norwich City Youth player Adam Smith first came to Dereham in 2005. By contrast to the midfielder’s long commitment to the club, Jerry Desaolu is a new signing from Wroxham. The attacking midfielder and Loughborough University graduate has similar pace to his brother James, the second fastest UK 100m runner in history and European Champion!

Adam Hipperson, Luke Johnson and Jacob Lay are all forward thinking midfielders too. Hipperson plays more on the wing, and having started at Norwich City, he has played for Norwich United and Acle United before joining Dereham. He scored 19 goals last season from 31 appearances.

Johnson and Lay are new signings for this season. Johnson came from Kings Lynn and has one goal from his nine starts this year. Lay was an Ipswich Junior, trained with West Ham and then joined Preston North End. More recently he has been in action at Braintree, Witham and Felixstowe.

They have two out and out strikers in their squad, Harry Gagen and Toby Hilliard. Gagen played in pre-season after signing from Mattishall, but hasn’t made a league start.

Hilliard has already scored four goals in eight games this season. The prolific striker came from Kings Lynn in July last year.

Kick off as usual is 3pm, weather permitting.

by Peter Scherer

After some impressive performances for Mickleover last season, young full back Karel Tvaroh’s career has taken another step forward at home in the Czech Republic.

Before arriving in Derby to study at the University, Karel was part of the Sparta Prague Academy.

He was a regular member of Sports first team squad and was on the scoresheet too in the 4-1 win at home to Grantham in January, as his attacking prowess came to the fore with his Northern Premier league experiences.

I appreciate the passion for Mickleover from such a lovely club. Thanks to the circumstances it was better for me stay in my homeland unfortunately at the moment. Hopefully things will get better and one day perhaps I will be back.

he said.

His progress at Sparta has now earned him a place in their Europa Cup squad.

I haven’t made a start yet, but hopefully that will change soon.

Another amazing for our football club.

added Gaffer John McGrath.

by Peter Scherer

Mickleover extended their unbeaten run to six games with a hard fought win against a robust defending Hyde United.

The starting line-up was the same as last Saturday’s win over Grantham, but it was a welcome back for Mason Warren and Aman Verma on the bench.

The full line-up was 1-Callum Hawkins 2-Jake Benett 3-Alex Morris 4-Kemy Agustien 5-James Butler 6-Phil Watt 7-George Milner 8-Andrew Wright 9-Paddy Webb 10-Stuart Beavon 11-Declan Bacon, Subs: Josh Satchwell, Mason Warren, Pablo Mills, Anam Verma, and Joe Slinn.

Mickleover were on the attack from the opening minutes, with Milner the integral part of a build-up including most of the team.

An early Agustien free-kick was cleared and after six minutes a Beavon cross was headed out for the first corner of the game. It came to nothing and after the clearance there was a free-kick to Hyde.

Four minutes later and Agustien was busy with another free kick after Wright was fouled, but the initial clearance ran loose, was picked up by Milner, whose shot was just over.

Beavon was the next to be fouled, so it was another Agustien free kick, before the Curacao midfielder played a nice ball through the middle, for Milner to flick on a header which wasn’t picked up.

Hyde then started to come out more and after a Tom Pratt effort was easily blocked by Watt, Liam Tongue shot straight at Hawkins, with his shot comfortably held. 

Sports then broke out again with a strong running overlap from Morris, but his cross was too near to keeper Joe Green.

Tongue had a good effort again for Hyde on 15 minutes, but Hawkins dived to his left and had it covered. 

Then Watt was first in the book for Sports and yet another free kick and Hyde’s effort was straight into the wall, before Morris went in the book for a late challenge too.

The next free kick was Hyde’s again and nearly got through the Mickleover defence, before being put out for a corner.

The book was out again for Paddy Lane’s late challenge on Morris, only two minutes later Tom Pratt was in there too after a challenge on Butler and Bradley Roscoe followed after taking down Beavon, as the referee’s whistle began to dominate the game.

In between the stoppages Hyde managed a weak shot easily taken by Hawkins, and another effort from Tongue was blocked.

With 10 minutes to go in the first half Beavon almost found space in the box, before a Bacon cross was cleared by the visitors defence.

There was another Mickleover free kick after Milner was taken down just outside the box, Agustien’s shot was then just tipped over by Green.

Hyde then got a break through Chinedu Uche, and although it got very busy in the box, Hawkins ran out and cleared the threat before the referee finally brought a very scrappy first half to a conclusion.

There was an early corner for Hyde as the second half kicked off, but no one connected with Tongue’s effort 

But it was soon evident that Sports were beginning to flow, aided by the fact the referee wasn’t stopping play every five minutes.

Butler put a testing ball over the centre of the Hyde goal, almost connecting with a charging Bennett before it was intercepted.

Webb almost put Wright in the clear but a combination of keeper and defender saved the visitors again. Beavon was next, chasing a long ball that just ran out on him.

Lane had a great chance to give the visitors the lead, but put it wide and was soon to regret his miss. 

Morris to Bacon, a cross to Bennett who had made a long and forceful run towards goal. He could have shot but played it to Milner, who placed it cleanly in the bottom corner. 1-0 after 55 minutes.

“That goal was so important,” said a delighted Milner. “I played my part in that goal, as we just don’t score enough,” Bennett added.

Only a couple of minutes later Webb was almost through again, then Bacon had his cross put out for a corner.

The pressure continued with Bacon fouled on the edge of the box. The initial Beavon free kick was put out for a corner, from where Butler’s header was put out for another corner too.

Beavon was busy again with a 68^th minute cross, Webb was tripped in the area, but Wright sent a cracking shot inches over the bar.

With less stoppages the game had flowed much better in the second half, which suited Sports tactics and another promising run from Webb earned another corner.

72 minutes in and Warren came on for Bacon and Hawkins had a bit of work to do, which was all dealt with routinely.

Sports were still pushing and had most of the play when Webb had a chance of number two from a Morris cross, but he just failed to make proper contact and the chance had gone.

Back from injury Verma was on for Wright, but after 80 minutes Hyde had a great chance for an equaliser, when a telling cross across the goal face, was just missed at the far post.

Hyde pushed everything forward, including keeper Green, who had been putting up with some friendly banter from Sports fans about his shiny boots.

Hawkins had a couple of late saves to make and Warren created his own space and shot just wide. Mills subbed for Webb in the final minutes, but the whistle blew after five minutes added time, and it was another well-deserved win for Mickleover.

The Sports Report is ready to view for today’s game. Click here