by Peter Scherer
It just wasn’t to be, a first half red card and a goal conceded in each half, brought an end to Mickleover’s FA Cup run. Starting line-up. 1-Jim Pollard 2-Joe Bateman 3-Ryan Wilson 4-Will Atkinson 5-Fin Delap 6-Ethan Mann 7-Ben Sault 8-Dan Bradley 9-Andre Wright 10-Marcus Barnes 11-Oli Greaves. Subs: Stuart Beavon, Oliver Bosworth. Fin Ryder, Sam Tomlinson, Zac Sandhu.
Stourbridge were straight into their game and were causing trouble from the start, when Prosser’s fourth minute free kick was initially cleared before Bavanga missed tbe rebound.
But Stan Anaebonam soon capitalised on a poor clearance out of the Mickleover defence and successfully chipped the advancing Pollard. 0-1.
Only a minute or so later Sports could have equalised, after a Stourbridge mistake in defence saw the ball flash across an open goal before being cleared.
Benbow was almost clean through chasing a long ball from Flint after nine minutes, but Mickleover replied with a shot from just outside the box, straight at keeper Flatt.
Pollard pulled off another save from Benbow 22 minutes on as the Mickleover defence continued to be the busier of the two.
Sports managed to push forward a little more either side of the half hour mark. A free kick deep into Stourbridge territory was cleared and a couple of corners were both cleared by Prosser, before Pollard pulled off another save from Benbow.
But it took a turn for the worse when Barnes was red carded after 37 minutes in believed to be an off the ball incident.
Another defensive mix up after 39 minutes almost gifted Benbow a second Stourbridge goal, until Pollard came to the rescue, so it remained 0-1 at half time.
Mickleover were being over run by Stourbridge, who had raised their game considerably from their league form.
Anaebonam and Prosser went close before a 49th penalty appeal was waved away. Pollard performed heroics in the Mickleover goal bit around the hour mark came the inevitable, when Flint hit the roof of the net. 0-2.
Mickleover fought hard to try and get back into the game and got the ball in the net after 76 minutes only to be disallowed for a foul on the keeper.
So the run has ended and we now look forward to Tuesday night’s home game against Stamford in the FA Youth Cup and next Saturday’s FA Trophy tie at Barwell.