By Lewis Radbourne, with additional words from Peter Scherer
Mickleover ended the season on a high as they beat Lancaster City 3-1.
Starting line-up: 1-Jonathan Hedge 2-Elliott Walker 3-Rhys Dolan 4-Ben Radcliffe 5-James Butler 6-Phil Watt 7-Liam Ravenhill 8-George Milner 9-Kai Moore 10-Stuart Beavon 11-Andy Dales. Subs: Ethan Mann, Andrew Wright, Pablo Mills, Jahvan Davidson-Miller.
Sports started the better of the two teams, when in the sixth minute some good pressure from Moore led to Walker receiving the ball on the edge of the area, and he smacked the ball onto the crossbar, which set the tone for the rest of the game.
A couple of minutes later and Beavon was put through on goal down the right- hand side of the box, but his shot was straight at the keeper.
13 minutes in and Walker came close once again, with his free-kick deflecting under the wall, and going just past the post. Beavon then came close once again two minutes later when his half volley curled wide.
It took 20 minutes for Lancaster to have their first attempt of note, when Charlie Bailey’s strike from 30 yards out forced an acrobatic save from Sports keeper Hedge.
But there was an early change for Mickleover when Mann came on for Milner.
Lancaster continued to come back into the game, when Liam Brockbank put in a low cross from the left-hand side, only for Hedge to claim the ball on the six yard line, just before Robert Wilson to get a nick on it after 35 minutes.
Lancaster started the second half the better of the two, with striker Enoch Likoy managing to get onto a ball down the left side ahead of Walker, before smashing just past the far post in the opening minutes,
Despite Lancaster’s start, it was Mickleover who took the lead through Dales, when some good pressure from the winger led to him winning the ball back in the opposition box, before calmly finishing into the bottom right corner in the 51st minute. 1-0.
It was only four minutes later that Mickleover doubled their lead through Radcliffe, when he headed in Moore’s cross from the right- hand side after some good play from the hosts. 2-0 after 54 minutes.
Shortly afterwards the scorer came off to make for Wright, and Davidson-Miller replaced Moore, but Wright was soon on the scoresheet himself.
Beavon played the ball across to the edge of the area for Wright, who’s bouncing 74th minute shot into the bottom left corner made it 3-0.
Mickleover piled on the pressure near the end as they looked for a fourth, when Dales picked up the ball in the centre of the area, trying to place the ball into the bottom left corner, just putting it wide as it hit the post.
Sports thought they got their fourth when Wright curled in, only for it to be given as offside. Dales then thought he got the fourth too, with his half volley looking like it looped over the keeper, only for Lancaster goalkeeper Curtis Anderson to tip it over the bar.
Despite the late pressure, it was the away side that got the fourth goal of the game when Nathan Reid was put through on goal with five minutes left and slotted it home to make it 3-1.
The 3-1 win means Sports end the season in 12th place on 55 points, one place behind Lancaster.