Author: Square Peg

Sports’ Season Begins on Saturday: Coventry Sphinx (a)

by Peter Scherer

With pre-season now over, Mickleover look to Saturday’s opening league game in the NPL Midlands Division, visiting Coventry Sphinx.

There will be a number of debutants lining up for Sports, plus returning keeper Oliver Bosworth and striker Paddy Webb joining the hardcore of the squad retained from last season.

Our hosts finished 17th in the table last season and began their FA Cup campaign last weekend, with a 2-0 home win over Romulus.

Manager John Woodward has recently taken over as full time, having been a co-manager last season. But he is assisted by Louis Guest, club captain and currently recovering from a long term injury.

Keeper Charlie Woods was signed from Alvechurch last September and has played for Quorn and Barwell too, since being released by Northampton Town.

Patrick Zito is an ex Aston Villa junior. A centre back he came from Quorn at the start of last season, after spells at Sutton Coldfield and Stratford Town.

Currently captaining the side in Guest’s absence is central midfielder Callum Woodward. He is in his second spell with our hosts, having originally left to join Coalville in September 2010, spending four years there until a move to Barwell, preceded a return to Coalville. He has now been back at Sphinx for nearly nine years.

Striker Roan Newey joined our hosts at the start of last season, following his release from West Bromwich Albion.

Fellow striker Kyle Carey was at Mickleover back in 2018 and his previous clubs include Coventry Utd too. When he returned to Sphinx last September, he was only the second player in the clubs history to sign a contract, having previously played youth football for the club.

Centre back Ryley Nicholson and striker Andre Williams are strikers too. Both arrived at the beginning of last season, Nicholson has played for Lutterworth and Coventry Utd and Williams was previously at Hinckley.

Preferably a right sided midfielder, Matty Bowman is another ex Mickleover player in the home squad. A former Repton School pupil he played youth football at Middlesbrough and Hull City, before heading to Scotland with Dunfermline Athletic. He came to the Don Amott Arena from Basford in November 2023, and started last season at Bridlington. He arrived at Sphinx last month.

Striker Joe Blowers has re-signed after playing for the team last season and both Lucas Marks and Leeland Yates have come through academy football and made their first team debuts pre-season.

Kick is at 3pm

Reserves Take Big Hit

by Peter Scherer

Following their victory over Mickleover Athletic last Friday, Mickleover Reserves were brought down to earth with a bang last night, losing 1-5 at Linby Colliery Welfare.

Starting line-up: 1-Josh Bull 2-Kacper Krawczyk 3-Connor Bland 4-Finlay Riggott 5-Dylan Buckley-Moore 6-Joe Moore 7-Shujah Ali 8-Luis Mas-Hall 9-Mason Chadwick 10-Thomas Swift 11-Mikey Mandimutsira. Subs: Marts Sudavs, Mateusz Krawczyk, Michel Laskiewicz, Efren Rolleston, Cohen Fearn.

It was a fairly lively start on a breezy but sunny evening, with Bull forced into the first save after five minutes, after some end to end exchanges.

Three minutes later our hosts headed just wide after a corner, as they began to settle and the Mickleover defence started to come under more and more pressure.

12 minutes in and Bull had to make another good save after a strong attack had outpaced Sports defence down the left, and he was in action again just two minutes later, picking out a dangerous cross from the right.

Mickleover had a half chance in the 16th minute when some good work from Swift found Chadwick in the box, but he was unable to get a final shot in.

Buckley-Moore headed over from a corner a few minutes later, soon followed by a speculative shot over the bar from Mandimutsira.

Swift and Ali were showing glimpses of promise, backed up by the hard working Mandimutsira and target man Chadwick.

But Linby were soon back on top, just missing out in a goal mouth scramble after 21 minutes. Only three minutes later they made their pressure count, when a cross from the left was headed home, the striker seemingly unmarked as the defence froze, 0-1.

Six minutes later another scramble in the box was cleared after Linby had scythed through the defence again, but they made it 0-2 after 32 minutes when the defence failed to clear a cross from the right. Bull saved the initial effort, but couldn’t stop the rebound.

Sudavs came on for Mandimutsira just after the half hour, after he took a knock. But it was Bull in action again, saving from another shot on the right with the half time whistle following.

Although Mickleover’s midfield had managed to make progress in the first half, the defence were outplayed in all departments, with keeper Bull the busiest player on the field.

The second half had barely kicked off when a Linby striker spotted Bull off his line. He tried a speculative lob but the keeper had it covered, but a minute later a fairly weak shot came in from the right, Bull left the ball expecting it to go wide, but after a bobble on the pitch it found the bottom left corner, 0-3.

Swift had another shot after 52 minutes, giving the home keeper a rare save to make and five minutes later Chadwick had a shot blocked.

But another goal soon followed for our hosts when the defence fell apart, before another fairly weak shot slipped through Bull’s hands and it was 0-4 with 63 minutes gone.

Bull punched away another shot two minutes later, soon followed by a header just over the bar as virtually all of the play was in the Mickleover half.

Mas-Hall had a shot saved by the home keeper’s feet, before Bull pulled off another good double save, the first from a shot well outside the box and the second with his feet too.

But with eight minutes left Sports finally got on the scoresheet when Moore got on the end of another goal mouth scramble.

It still wasn’t over though as some shambolic defending left Linby to score number five, with Bull again saving initially, but with no defender reacting to his save, the rebound was in and it ended 1-5.

 

Wilson Heads Out On Loan

by Peter Scherer

Former Mickleover captain Ryan Wilson has gone to Stamford in the Southern League Central Premier Division on a season long loan.

Signed from Basford at the start of 22/23 season, he has spent three seasons at the Don Amott Arena.

Everyone one at Mickleover wish him well for the forthcoming season.

Sports Go Down In Final Pre-Season Test

by Peter Scherer (Images: Steve Ingers)

A goal in each half ended Mickleover’s hopes of finishing pre-season with a win at Northern Premier League Leek Town, in an otherwise impressive performance.

Starting line-up: 1-Oliver Bosworth 2-Jake Bennett 3-Archie White 4-Will Atkinson 5-George Wilkinson 6-Ashton Offler 7-Steven Johnson-Fikula 8- Harry Wood 9- Paddy Webb 10-Fraser Corden 11-Omotola. Subs: Stuart Beavon, Liam Carter, Trialist A, Trialsit B, Trialist C.

It didn’t start well for Mickleover going a goal down to our hosts in the first minute, 0-1.

Three minutes later Wilkinson was on hand to snub out another attack, stifling any opportunity before the striker could get a shot in.

Once Mickleover began to settle they showed a good strong response in all departments, battling particularly well in midfield with plenty of possession.

16 minutes in and Webb forced the home keeper into a good save, as Mickleover started to look closer at snatching an equaliser.

Just a minute later Bennett let fly on the right, forcing another save as the pressure started to build on the home defence. Bosworth had to pull off a save too when a half volley effort followed a Leek free kick.

Webb went close again after 32 minutes with a header just wide of the post, which proved to be the last chance of the half, with the score remaining 0-1.

Sports hopes of getting back on terms were dashed when Leek got a second goal after 53 minutes, 0-2, but just after the hour mark our sub trialist keeper made a low save as a Leek striker closed in.

Mickleover continued to chase for the rest of the game, and brought on Beavon as late sub to test the home defence for the last 10 minutes, but is still remained 0-2 to our hosts.

“The back three really worked well together, our striker’s provided really good platform and midfield dominated for much of the game and we could easily have been back in at half time, but didn’t take our chances. OveralI I am really pleased with the performance,” said Sports gaffer Gareth Holmes.

 

Three Points For Reserves In Season Opener

by Miguel Mas Lilleman (Images: Michael Taylor)

Mickleover Reserves started their Central Midlands Alliance League campaign with a 2-1 home win against local rivals Mickleover Athletic.

Sports opened the scoring in the first half, when Morad Shweikh darted through the middle to chase a lovely through ball from Luis Mas Hall, beating Athletic’s offside trap that had been played from the start, to round the keeper and slot home 1-0.

The equaliser came almost on the stroke of half time, following three consecutive corners, leaving it 1-1 at the break.

But the winner then came midway through the second half, with a cool finish into the bottom right- hand corner from sub Mason Chadwick, after a nice interpassing move build up from Sports youngsters.

Athletic pushed hard for another equaliser, but two exceptional saves from keeper Josh Bull from one on one situations, made sure the three points stayed firmly in Sports grasp.

 

Sports Head For Final Warm-Up At Leek

by Peter Scherer

Mickleover played Leek three times last season and came out on top in all three games. But it was our hosts who survived in the NPL to finally finish 15th, winning a hard fought battle for survival.

It’s the last chance for Sports gaffer Gareth Holmes to try out trialists, as well as defining his starting his starting line-up for the following weeks league opener.

Most of Josh Brehaut’s squad at Leek have been retained for this season. They recently lost 0-3 to Clitheroe in a friendly and last Saturday played both Nantwich Town, winning 2-1 and Kidsgrove Athletic, losing 0-1.

South African Dean Visser is first choice goalkeeper, signed from Hereford in late 2023. He’s played for Port Vale, Crewe and Exeter City too, having spent his earlier career at home in South Africa.

Visser’s deputy is Xander Parke, a former Stoke City and Shrewsbury Junior who also arrived in late ’23.

Centre back Liam Edwards came from Chester at the start of last season. He started out at Stoke City, before joining Bolton Wanderers. After a loan at Southport he joined Chester on his release in August 2022.

Liam Buckley came from 1874 Northwich at the start of the 23/24 season. Primarily a right back he has also played for Cefn Druids after starting out at Chester City.

Tom Curl is right back too and spent most of his career with Stoke City. He had a loan spell with Hanley Town, but joined our hosts at the start of last season.

Billy Reeves is an experienced midfielder, who came through Port Vale’s youth scheme, making 12 League One appearances. He was loaned to Witton Albion and Hyde Utd, before joining Stafford Rangers after an initial loan.

He then spent almost five years at Leek before moving to Bootle in July 2023, but returned at the start of last season after a spell at Bury.

Central midfielder Adam Porter is a product of the Stoke City Academy. Back in 2019 he was loaned to Leek and also had a spell at Altrincham before joining Salford City on his release. He played for Truro City and Ashton Utd too, before returning to Leek in August last year.

Ollie Shenton came via the Stoke Academy too and is another central midfielder. After loans at Wrexham and Kidderminster he joined Chorley and had another loan at Warrington Rylands before joining our hosts at the start of last season.

Lucas Weir favours central midfield too and joined our hosts in January last year from 1874 Northwich. He played his youth football at Northwich Victoria, Chester City and Wigan Athletic, but has spent much of his career at 1874 Northwich. He had a spell in the US with Evansville Purple Aces and has also played for Marine.

Left winger Alex Hurst has League Two experience. He started out at Crewe Alexandra, before a short spell at Matlock. Bradford Park Avenue was his next stop, before joining Port Vale. He has also played for York City and came to our hosts from Macclesfield at the start of last season.

Striker Louis Potts came from Preston North End’s youth scheme. He played for Workington and Glossop North End too, before his first spell with Avro. Mossley and Ashton Utd are also on his CV, along with return trips to Avro. He joined Leek last December from Clitheroe.

Tyreece Onyeka is another striker who arrived from Stafford at the start of last season. He was previously a Crewe junior.

Hayden Campbell is a striker too. He started out at Port Vale and Salford City and was loaned to Stalybridge and Altrincham before joining Marine on his release. He has played for Curzon Ashton and Macclesfield to before coming to Leek last October from Rushall Olympic.

Centre back Matty Fenton is a new arrival from 1874 Northwich after a four year stint with the club. He is a former Crewe Junior.

Ollie Heywood has just arrived too following his release from Chester. He has previously had two loan spells at Leek, along with 1874 Northwich and Hanley Town.

Striker Connor Heath completes the three new signings, after a short spell at Hyde Utd. He is another former Crewe Junior, who was loaned to Witton Albion and Colwyn Bay, before going to Nantwich on his release. He has played for Farsley Celtic, Nantwich, Southport and Stafford too.

Kick off as usual is 7.45 pm.

Former Sports Stars Move On

by Peter Scherer

TWO of the Mickleover players from last season have taken another step in their footballing careers.

Former Stoke City midfielder Gaby Adebambo will be playing in tier two of the Czech Republic League with SK Dynamo Ceske Budejovice, while former Blackpool loanee wing Kwaku Donkor will be playing National League with Tamworth.

We wish both players the best of luck in their future careers and thank them for the contribution during their time at Mickleover

said Sports boss Gareth Holmes.

New Midfielder Joins Mickleover Squad

by Peter Scherer

Mickleover managed Gareth Holmes has added midfielder Fraser Corden to the squad for the forthcoming season.

Corden came through the junior ranks at Rushden & Diamonds and played for their Under 21 side before making his first team debut in September 2021.

He has also been a regular member of the first team squad since then and is also a England Futsal International

As I moved to live in Derby, I sent a message and video to Gareth and he offered me a trial. I was fairly optimistic and had confidence in myself after playing the pre-season games, did well and was signed

said Fraser.

White Joins Sports

by Peter Scherer

Mickleover have signed versatile left sided player Archie White. He can play winger, midfield or orthodox winger and started his career in Chesterfield’s Academy, where he spent 10 years, including loans at Staveley MW and Matlock Town.

He joined Buxton following his release in July last year and was on a dual registration with Long Eaton Utd. He has also played for Retford and Sheffield FC.

The gaffer got in touch with me, I like the set up here and the style he likes to play, high temp and positive and it suits me. Have a chance, have a shot, so I can’t wait for the season to start

he said.