by Peter Scherer
The weather did its best to put a dampener on the proceedings last night, as Mickleover were robbed of another three points, with a last-minute equaliser from Sutton Coldfield Town.
Starting line-up: 1-Oliver Bosworth 2-Ali Mohiuddin 3-Archie White 4-George Wilkinson 5-Danny Benson 6-Brad Gascoigne 7-Will Atkinson 8-Harry Wood 9-Josiah Dyer 10-Andy Dales 11-Paddy Webb. Subs: Michael Hollingsworth, Fraser Corden, Stanley Holder, Thabang Dube, Liam Carter.
Sutton Coldfield earned an early corner which came to nought, before Mickleover went for an early push. White began to torment the defence on the left wing, before Dyer tested keeper Wren after nine minutes, picking up a loose ball on the edge of the box, but unable to get any real power into his strike.
It was a scrappy start with passes not surprisingly going astray in the ever wet conditions. But 12 minutes in after a Sutton attack had broken down, another run by White got him into the box. His path was blocked but he found Dyer, who made no mistake from close range 1-0.
Mickleover won a free kick on the left three minutes, but White’s kick was soon cleared, while the visitors attempts to breach the home defence, was comfortably dealt with by Wilkinson, Benson and Gascoigne at the back.
Mohiuddin found Dales on the right as we reached the half hour mark, his effort was blocked as was Dyer’s follow up.
Dyer was almost through again a few minutes later but the visitors defence recovered, as they continued to try and play out of their own half more and more.
Atkinson and Wood were keeping midfield fairly tight, which prompted a shot from our visitors from well outside the box after 35 minutes, only to be blocked again.
Just as it began to look as Mickleover would reach half time a goal up, Wilkinson was penalised for a push on Burke in the box. A soft penalty but nevertheless McGrady’s shot proved decisive, with Bosworth choosing the right way, but beyond the full stretch to his right, 1-1 after 41 minutes and remaining level pegging at half time.
Sutton started the second half with more determination and tested Bosworth again to earn a corner four minutes into the half. Webb then picked up the ball as it ran loose, but his path was soon cut off too.
Unlike the first half, Sports seemed to sitting back more and letting their opponents come at them. They were lucky when a 54th minute free kick broke down, prompting a mix up in the defence. The final shot was blocked and the danger cleared.
A minute later Dales managed to create enough space to try a long shot, which went just wide of the left-hand post.
On the hour Sutton had a corner headed over, before Mickleover made their first change with Hollingsworth on for Atkinson.
The visitors had started to get the upperhand, but that all changed in the 62nd minute. Dales floated in a corner and Webb connected to send a glancing header to keeper Wren’s left and it was 2-1.
10 minutes later Webb made way for Dube, but Sutton had another chance to equalise, missing a header at the far post.
78 minutes and Holder replaced Wood, but the visitors continued to look dangerous, with both Wilkinson and Gascoigne having to make hefty clearances.
Sutton missed another chance in the 80th minute with a comfortable header missing its target, before Mickleover went close again after Dales’ build up saw Holder’s shot saved by Wren.
With just over five minutes left Dube sent a powerful strike in from the right. It struck the bar and ricocheted out of play.
Sutton threw everything into the final minutes with keeper Wren even attacking down the left wing. They had a shot over the bar after 88 minutes, but with three minutes added on, there was a painful blow with Wilkinson initially clearing another goal mouth scramble, but it fell nicely for McGrady who poked the ball home to make it 2-2, with just seconds on the clock.
