by Peter Scherer

With Tuesday nights match at Arnold postponed it’s been two weeks since Mickleover Reserves were last in action.

This weekend’s visit is to South Normanton, where the home side lie fifth in Central Midlands South Division, one place about Mickleover.

South Normanton have four wins from seven games, but lost their last match 3-0 at home to Bildworth, with their last league win being on October 3^rd 5-1 at Nottingham.

Mickleover are two points behind but have two games in hand, plus a superior goal difference of +8 compared to +1.

Kick off is 3pm.

by Dave Mackenzie, Reserves Manager

2020 is presenting us with a raft of problems, not least the current situation with Covid 19 and the way that is affecting us all, but from a footballing side the success the reserves had last year, resulted in a need to find more funding to support the team.

Having a reserve side means that there is a pathway into senior football for any players from one of the Junior sides or the Academy teams and also can provide game time for a first team player either coming back from injury or having not had a lot of minutes recently.

The down side to the success is the resultant extra costs with us having to pay more for the officials, provide hospitality although not yet due to Covid and printing programmes. The extraoutgoings this year will be in the region of £1K taking the costs to around £3K

It is important I feel in these times to make known the fact that the First Team players are contributing £2 per player per week. This is a great gesture and thanks are to the players and also to the gaffer John McGrath for instigating.

Whilst the contributions from the First Team Squad is great we need to do more and we have had a couple of fund raising exercises (Exercise in one case being the operative word).

During August I aimed to ride the distance from Derby to Lands End – 362 miles. I completed the distance on the Bank Holiday having done several rides to away games to the likes of Nottingham which racked up 40+ miles each time.

The money raised from the bike rides will be split between us and also Prostate Cancer a charity the club has supported and last year I did the 3 longer rides purely for them raising circa £600.

Currently we have had 18 donations and sit at £385. The website is still open until November 7^th. www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/david-mackenzie-54

The other method is that we (Aaron, Fran and myself) are selling raffle tickets at £2 and the winner will be in receipt of a new Derby County Strip signed by all the players including Wayne Rooney. This was kindly donated to us by ex Derby County and England stalwart Roy McFarland.

We have raised about £150 so far and when we reach £300 (150 tickets) I will get Roy Mc to make the draw.

As things stand at the moment, we are, I am happy to report in a positive situation however we have only had 2 home games so a lot more outgoings will be due.

If anyone else would like to join in by carrying out a task – getting their hair chopped or going without alcohol for a period of time please do :-). It was suggested that I do a sponsored strip for the ladies, but the fact that the person was laughing at the time would suggest that I would earn more to keep my clothes on!

by Peter Scherer

Mickleover Reserves were without a game last Saturday, following their home win at home to Nottingham FC the previous week.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) they visit Arnold Town for a 7.45 kick off.

The home side started the season with a 2-0 defeat at Holbrook St Michaels, followed by a 3-0 defeat to Underwood Villa in their first home match.

On September 19^th they visited Linby and were hammered 7-1, before picking up their only points so far with a 3-1 win at home to bottom of the table Teversal Reserves.

They went out of the League Cup 2-1 to 780 JLC  and then lost the next league match at home to Rowsley 2-1.

After a 3-1 defeat by Heanor Town Reserves in the Floodlit Cup, they were torn apart again in their last game too, suffering a 7-2 defeat to Pinxton.

With a goal difference of -16, they currently lie 17^th in the table, with Sports in sixth.

by David Mackenzie
Mickleover FC, Reserves Manager

Mickleover FC Reserves 3 Nottingham 1

The Reserves got back to winning ways on Saturday against a dogged Nottingham FC side who fought until the final whistle.

The hardest part though was getting people conform to the guidelines put in place to keep people safe and separated for as much as possible.

The team went out with instructions to start with a high tempo and in the first 10 minutes had four really good chances to take the lead. 

Will Monterio back in action after 6 months got into some excellent positions and was unlucky on a couple of occasions. 

With Clinton Morrison pulling the strings in midfield ably aided by wee Louis Pennington and the two full backs Lopes Massampo and Tom Etheridge raiding down the flanks, it wasn’t long before the deadlock was broken. a good move was finished off with a crisp strike by Jude Ayetine. Unfortunately, the tempo dropped and some of the passing was not of the usual standard, and the half finished with no further damage to either teams defences.

The words at half time were that an improvement was needed as Nottingham had shown that they had some quality and could hurt us if we didn’t respond.

The play improved somewhat and from one of several corners we netted again.

The ball from the corner was low across the box, about 3 yards out and clever movement from Bobby Battison tricked their keeper, as he dummied the ball allowing it to reach Jude at the back post for a clinical finish.

It was good to have Bobby back from injury and his introduction brought a higher level of energy and intensity.

A third goal was on the cards and it duly arrived via the cultured left foot of Adam Prusa. He gathered the ball on our right about four yards outside the box and drove into the box sidestepping a challenge and the curving the ball delightfully around the next defender and into the far corner of the net.

That should have been game, set and match however Nottingham’s left winger had other ideas, stepping past two players, he was central and about 20 yards out when he unleashed a screamer that left Tom Smith with no chance.

Overall a decent performance from the aforementioned players with the central defence of Clarence (baldy) Clark and Gus Williamson solid. 

MOTM came from the high energy and quality of Lopes Massampo playing at right back due to illness to Larrrel King.

They now move up to sixth in the Central Midlands League South Division and are next in action away to Arnold on Tuesday 27^th.

 

by Peter Scherer

If you are not travelling to Ashton to see Mickleover FC first team, why not visit the Don Amott Arena where the Reserve team are at home to Nottingham FC in the Central Midlands League.

After a disappointing game away to Blidworth last weekend, Sports went down 2-1 after leading for most of the second half.

Mickleover are currently seventh in the South Division, with Nottingham 14^th, with only one point from five games. 

Nottingham started with three away games, losing 3-2 at Hilton and 4-3 at Blidworth, before earning their point at Holbrook St Michaels. They had led 3-0 when Blaize Hall scored twice and Kashe Hall made it 3-0. Holbrook pulled it back before to 3-3.

CJ Dunkley put Nottingham 4-3 up then Holbrook grabbed a late equaliser to make it 4-4.

Since then the Nottingham defence have been hit for five in both games, going down 5-1 to Underwood Villa and 5-2 to South Normanton.

With the firepower of Jude Ayetaine and Surafel Tefera, the Sports strikers will be hoping to follow the recent precedent. 

by Dave Mackenzie
Mickleover FC
Reserves Manager

The reserves made the shortish trip across to Robin Hood country on Saturday and took part in an exciting and enthralling game against Blidworth Welfare. 

Blidworth’s pitch looked a picture from the high vantage point of the changing rooms (there are 43 steps down to the pitch). It is a good sized pitch with a lovely lush surface albeit the grass could be doing with a trim.

There was an enforced change before kick off when Bobby Battison pulled up with a groin strain during the warm up. This allowed us to start Mat Fuetardo an ex Chesterfield Academy player as a direct replacement.

The first half was fairly even although we suffered another blow when Elliot Murray landed badly and ‘popped’ his knee. Luckily the team Captain, Gus Williamson was on the bench having himself come back from an ankle injury.

We had the ball in the net twice in the first half but the linesmen deemed players to be offside although the ball had come off the defender in one instance and it would be churlish to claim that it was definitely deliberate.

Towards the end of the half things got a bit tousy and we were on the receiving end of three bookings. The first Surafel Tefera was impeded going passed a player, which meant that the ball ran away and he overstretched, fouling a player. 

The second booking was for stupidly running across the ball as a free-kick was being taken, and the third could have been a straight red!!! 

Having said that we were on the receiving end of two rash tackles early on that went unbooked!

Tom Smith had to look lively on an occasion to save a header, but apart from that was untroubled. 

There wasn’t much goalmouth action at the other end as we were too short with balls over their high backline, or when we did get it right we found their goalkeeper in good form with a couple of really good anticipated clearances.

We were much improved in the second half and had most of the play resulting only in a series of corners and a number of shots that were high or wide and not handsome.

The breakthrough came when a Blidworth defender tried to stop a mazy run by Jude Ayetine, only for the attempted tackle to place the ball neatly to the right of the keeper and just inside the post. 

With maybe 12 minutes remaining this should have been the motivation to shut up shop, but unfortunately we lost some of the composure that enabled us to take the lead. 

After several attempts to clear failed, Blidworth’s Paul Revuelta took his chance well with a low shot. Worse was to follow as after we failed to clear our lines from a corner and Scott Taylor made a good connection firing the ball low into the right-hand side of our goal. 

Blidworth should be congratulated for turning around a game that looked to be out of their grasp after the first goal. 

However they may have been helped when the referee stopped a very promising attack to bring back the play to book a player who committed a foul after the pass was made. 

Mat received the pass and was unmarked at the left edge of their penalty box).

After the game, the referee said he had to stop the game or he couldn’t book the player – not true. He could have let the move continue and booked the player when the ball next went out of play. We may or may not have scored if advantage had been played but it certainly disadvantaged us!

Next up, we welcome what we hope are a healthy Nottingham side to the Don Amott next Saturday with a 3pm kick off.

by Peter Scherer

Mickleover Reserves return to Central Midlands League Premier South Division action on Saturday, when they visit Blidworth Welfare FC for a 3pm kick off.

Blidworth are currently second in the table with four wins and one draw, having played two games more than Mickleover.

They started the season with a 1-0 win at home to Teversal Reserves, with a goal from Paul Revuelta.

Next up was a visit to Underwood Villa, where they returned home 3-1 victors, with returning ex captain Luke Bacon opening the scoring, followed by Wilson and Topliss.

A 4-3 win at home to Nottingham saw Revuelta hit two, along with single scores for Batty and S.Rogers, before Lindy went down 2-0 in their visit, with Kris Burrell and Wilson the scorers.

They dropped their first point last weekend, when a trip to Rowsley resulted in a 2-2 draw with goals from Burrell and Taylor.

With Sports scoring four goals in every league game so far, Blidworth keeper Adam Revuelta, will hopefully be in for a busy day.

by Peter Scherer

Mickleover Reserves suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 2-0 to a strong Melbourne Dynamo team in the Central Midlands League Cup.

It was raining for most of the game, but it was a fairly even first half, with few chances for either side and most of the play centred around the middle.

Isaac Gosling opened the scoring for the home side in the second half, but the game had suddenly livened up and it became an end to end Cup tie.

While Mickleover went after the equaliser, it was Melbourne who were on the score sheet again, with Jack Bodill scoring as the game ended in a 2-0 defeat.

by Peter Scherer

It’s not only the Mickleover first team in Cup action this weekend as the Reserves take a break from league football this Saturday, when they face an away tie at Melbourne Dynamo on the Central Midlands League Cup.

So far unbeaten this year, Sports are currently fifth in the Premier League South, with a game in hand over the top four, having already netted 12 goals from their three consecutive victories.

Melbourne are currently top of the Division One South, also with three wins out of three.

They beat Clifton All Whites Development in their last match 5-0, with a hattrick for Jack Goodband and goals from James Smith and Macauley Jones.

They had previously beaten Selston Reserves 5-0 and Heanor Town Reserves 9-1!
Kick off at Melbourne is 2pm.

by Peter Scherer

Only two days after beating Ashland Rovers 4-0, Mickleover FC Reserves hit Mansfield Hosiery Mills with another 4-1 victory.

It was already 3-0 at half time, before make it four in the second half. But the clean-sheet hopes were dashed when the home side were awarded a penalty with 10 minutes to go, making it 4-1 to Sports.

Surf Tefera was on the mark again with two goals and, while Tom Eccleshall and Fin Davies scored the others.

They now lie third in the league table after three games, having scored 12 goals and conceded five, levels on points with Pinxton and two behind Rowsley 86.

Next game is on Saturday when they faced Melbourne Dynamo away in the League Cup, before returning to League action a week later at Blidworth.