Reserves Lose Out In Mickleover Derby

by Peter Scherer

It was the long awaited local Derby game at the Don Amott Arena last night, as Mickleover Reserves took on Mickleover RBL in the Central Midlands League Premier Division South.

Starting line-up: 1-Josh Maher 2-Jake Bennett 3-Zac Sandu 4-Ronnie Bonser 5-Pablo Mills 6-Charlie Rock 7-George Atwal 8-John McGrath 9-Kai Moore 10-Marcus Marshall 11-Jake Edge-Lucas. Subs: Owen Parr, Fin Ryder, Harry Atwal, Jack Leighton.

Sports were on the attack from the first whistle, with the visiting keeper saving a Mills shot after only two minutes, before the follow up shot went wide.

Two minutes later RBL had their first corner, as they tried to push forward, but in the early minutes the more experienced Sports line-up was proving to strong.

Bennett had made good progress down the right and as the ball came into the middle, Marshall fired home from close range after seven minutes, 1-0.

RBL continued to battle their way out of their own half and a dangerous cross from their left, just failed to connect with awaiting heads in the box a minute later.

The Sports midfield of McGrath, Edge-Lucas and Atwal were controlling much of the play, with Marshall playing off the back of Mills and Moore up front.

RBL broke again after 13 minutes, but couldn’t get a final shot in and a following break for Sports ended when Moore was fouled.

Possession and lots of interpassing continued with a second goal looking a strong possibility. With Moore fouled a couple of times, the final attacks were breaking down.

But after 24 minutes Marshall set up Mills on a positive run. He then found Sandhu on the overlap, but his shot was wide of the left hand post.

McGrath then spotted Mills in space on the right on the half hour, but the crossfield pass was intercepted.

Into the final third of the first half, RBL began to force the Sports defence back. Bonser and Rock had looked strong in the middle, aided by their experienced colleagues and Maher had barely had a touch in the home goal.

But a string of corners for the visitors were followed by a goal mouth scramble, from which Maher punched away the danger.

Bonser saved the day with a last ditch tackle on a breaking striker after 41 minutes, but then with two minutes left to half time there was another chance for Sports.

McGrath was brought down and took the free kick himself. Mills and Marshall linked up on the right before Edge-Lucas ran through to the bye line. But the keeper darted off his line as a cross was imminent.

Another free kick soon followed, with Mills on the end of the McGrath kick, shooting just over the bar again, so it remained 1-0 as the whistle went.

The second half started badly when Sandhu lost possession on the Sports left only two minutes in. The cross came in and was met with precision, giving Maher little chance, 1-1.

Only a minute later McGrath was brought down in the box. A clear penalty and even though the referee and his assistants were wired up for some reason, they failed to communicate and played on.

From there the referee began to react more to pressure from the RBL players than his own observations, similarly his assistants who were both very late flagging some dubious offside decisions.

Moore had been fouled again in the right hand-corner, but the referee gave an obscure decision and Moore appeared to get a yellow card. Minutes later Moore was involved in another skirmish, which virtually the RBL side started demanding his dismissal. Fortunately the ref ignored this growing display of bad sportsmanship.

Sports had another good build up after 52 minutes, but Bennett’s cross was too near the keeper. Three minutes later Edge-Lucas had a run which just failed to connect with Marshall. RBL then got a break and split the home defence to make it 1-2.

There was more officialdom farce when Ryder prepared to replace Moore. The assistant appeared to refuse the substitution until the electronic board was used. After all this is the Central Midlands League, not Premiership!

The mood of the game had continued to deteriorate and rather than stamp down on it, it appeared to be almost encouraged.

RBL fired a dangerous cross from their right on the hour, but the pace made it impossible for his team mates to respond. But Atwal forced the RBL keeper to save with his feet after 66 minutes, following a positive cross field ball from McGrath.

The turning temper of the game seemed to have fired up the Sports team and they started to take control for a period again.

Mills chased down a McGrath ball  but shot wide, then Atwal picked it up just outside the box, sending a lovely lob over the keeper into the roof of the net, 2-2 after 68 minutes.

Sandhu was close after a Marshall cross eight minutes later and then RBL had a free kick which went to waste.

Leighton was the next sub on and had a good run down the left after 81 minutes. He layed it off to Marshall, who then found McGrath whose shot was blocked.

With five minutes of normal time on the clock, RBL fired another cross in from the left, once more with too much pace on it. Bennett then responded for Sports but his cross from the right was too close to the keeper, after a promising build up.

Parr came on for Edge-Lucas on the 90 minute mark, but the ref played an excessive amount of add on. Well into that time Sports had lost out on the left and a cross came into the box.

Bonser was about to clear, when and RBL striker tried an overhead kick. As the Sports centre back pulled out of the challenge rather than being kicked in the face, the offending striker then passed and it led to the disputed winning goal for RBL, 2-3.

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