by Peter Scherer
Having gone down 1-3 at Clay Cross in the league last month, Mickleover Reserves were hoping to gain revenge over their North Derbyshire rivals in the League Cup.
The hosts went ahead early on through Max Dungworth, but the young Mickleover side fought back with avengeance. Owen Parr created space for his own shot, tipped over the bar by the home keeper.
The following corner then found Declan Brown who took his chance superbly to make it 1-1.
But Clay Cross kept pushing forward with sustained pressure, as Mickleover sometimes found it hard to clear their ranks.
Zak Sandhu had a free kick cleared after Jack Leightonwas fouled and keeper Tom Bill had to be quick off the mark after a Clay Cross break.
Mickleover had another free kick, but the keeper saved Louis Pennington’s initial effort, only for Charlie Rock’s header from the resulting free kick to be saved easily by the home keeper.
McKeever-Atkins then managed to cut in across the visitors box to find Dean Ironmonger, but the striker was deemed offside as the half time whistle was blownall square.
Bill then had to pull off a tremendous save from a Clay Cross free kick to keep it level, before some defensive errors kept the pressure on Bill.
After Mickleover had an early corner in the second half as they looked for the lead, it was the hosts who found the back of the net, with Kurt Morley breaching the defence on the far post. 1-2.
Although Clay Cross had a player sin binned for 10 minutes, Mickleover failed to capitalise on the 10-men and the score remained 1-2 as Mickleover bow out of the Central Midlands League Cup.
The Reserves are without a game now until they face Teversal at the Don Amott Arena on October 8th.
(information provided by Mickleover Reserves Twitter)