by Peter Scherer (Images: Steve Ingers)
After a strong second half fightback, Mickleover once again succumbed to concede two late goals and lose two more valuable points.
Starting line-up: 1-Jay Alexander 2-Jake Bennett 3-Danny Gordon 4-Will Atkinson 5-Brad Gascoigne 6-George Wilkinson 7-Luke McCormick 8-Cieron Keane 9-Manni Norkett 10-Andy Dales 11-Paddy Webb. Subs: Stuart Beavon, Jayden Ogbebor, Jayden Samuels, Will Smith, Josh Carter.
After a fairly even opening five minutes, it was Boldmere with the first shot on goal, when Alexander saved well from Charlie Manners’ sixth minute strike.
A minute later Sports earned a free kick on the right when McCormick was brought down, but Gordon’s free kick went out for a goal kick.
Webb had already started to make his presence known and after 12 minutes he swung in a telling cross from the left, missing the heads of both Norkett and McCormick by inches.
Jus a minute later Webb was desperately close to opening the scoring, when a mistake in the visitors defence allowed him to cut inside to shoot, Brown in the Boldmere goal was beaten, but Pedro Lima managed to clear off the line.
Connor Armstrong then had a punt on goal, but his effort was well wide of the right-hand post, but it showed once again Boldmere’s capacity for a quick break.
After a brief respite from attack mode from both sides, Mickleover once again took the reins after 26 minutes, when Webb pushed the ball out to Gordon on the left, but his cross/shot was too close to the keeper.
Webb put another telling ball into the box on the half hour, it was high enough to beat the keeper, but there was no one in the middle to receive.
Keane then found Webb again two minutes later, his shot was on target but Brown made an excellent save with his feet to earn two consecutive corners.
Keane took the first and it was put out by the defence, while McCormick took the second, just missing Wilkinson’s head as he came forward.
McCormick earned another free kick when he was hauled back by his arm, but Gordon’s kick was straight into Brown’s waiting arms.
Brown saved again after McCormick charged through the middle, earning another corner, from which Norkett sent a glancing header just wide of the post.
Boldmere had only had one shot on target, but with a minute left in the first half, Manners picked the ball up on the Mickleover right. Alexander was well out of his goal to the right, where the whole of the defence had ventured too. But the Boldmere player seized his chance and sent a high lob over the keeper into the far corner, 0-1.
Just a minute later Norkett broke clear, he had the advancing keeper beaten to his left, but the ball agonisingly struck the post and rolled out of danger, despite some claims that it had crossed the line.
So a goal down at half time there were no immediate changes and the second period once again started fairly evenly.
Gradually Mickleover started to push forward to threaten the visitors, and after 57 minutes Gordon sent in a cross from the left for McCormick to head home the equaliser, 1-1.
While the Mickleover back four had continued to look fairly solid in the middle with Gascoigne and Wilkinson, Keane, Atkinson and Dales started to press more from midfield, with Bennett, McCormick and Gordon all using the wings well.
Nine minutes after the equaliser Mickleover went ahead when Keane burst through the middle to find Norkett, who stroked it beyond Brown’s reach to make it 2-1.
Four minutes later there was a second for Norkett heading home Keane’s curling corner from the left, 3-1. With Webb then going close again a few minutes later, Mickleover were looking home and dry and not for the first time this season.
Keane tried a random distance shot over the bar after 79 minutes, before McCormick almost broke through, before Brown was quick off his line to stifle any chance of a shot.
With eight minutes of normal time left, Jack Burgess pulled one back for the visitors after a neat build up on their right 3-2 and then Sports made their first changes with Smith and Beavon on for Webb and Norkett.
Five minutes later it was all square again, when Burgess scored his second, with a shot from just outside the box deflected past Alexander 3-3.
So from a solid looking victory it ended as a third successive draw in similar circumstances.
