be Peter Scherer (Images: Steve Ingers)
Mickleover made it six league and cup wins out of seven, after a comfortable 3-1 at Grantham Town in the FA Trophy.
Starting line-up: 1-Jack McDowell 2-Darryl Powell 3-Sam Sanders 4-Brad Lathall 5-Josh Ashman 6-George Wilkinson 7-Andy Dales 8-Cieron Keane 9-Harvey Smith 10-Manni Norkett 11-Kane Richards. Subs: Josh Carter; Yerim Zoko; Theo Rowe; Jude Taylor; Will Atkinson.
It was the hosts that had the first chance of the game, when McDowell had to race of his goal to save the strikers effort with his legs after five minutes.
But Mickleover soon settled and began to take charge, with Keane firing over the bar from distance, after Lathall had initiated the move a couple of minutes later.
11 minutes in and a McDowell clearance was headed on by Smith, for Norkett to shoot, but a deflection sent it wide for the first corner.
Richards had started to torment the left-hand side of the defence, cutting in from the right after 17 minutes, his shot was blocked and earned another corner.
But Sports were forced to make their first change following the resulting corner, when Smith took a knock and was replaced by Rowe.
It was Richards that opened the scoring too, chasing a ball from Dales in from the right, he chipped the keeper and the ball just rolled into net 1-0 after 20 minutes.
Just a minute later, he outpaced the defence again, but found his path blocked as he cut inside.
Grantham were opting for a long ball out of defence to chase, which hadn’t been looking too successful. But Shaw latched onto a clearance from keeper Steggles and forced McDowell into another save after 23 minutes.
Mickleover still had the majority of the possession and as on Wednesday night at Coventry, Powell, Ashman, Wilkinson and Sanders continued to look a solid back four, with Keane and Lathall directing from midfield.
Richards floated in another lovely 25th minute cross into the box again, but on this occasion the keeper just beat Norkett’s head to the ball.
Pressure was rewarded two minutes later though when Rowe’s trickery on the left saw him place a perfect cross onto Norkett’s head and it was 2-0.
Grantham hadn’t given up and continued with their original game plan, seeing Shaw test McDowell again close in and from a tight angle, but the Mickleover keeper took it with relative ease.
With Keane and Lathall in the centre of midfield, Dales appeared to have a more roaming role and 33 minutes gone and he earned a corner after his curling cross from the left was deflected.
Rowe and Dales then combined again on the left, but the final cross curled out for a goal kick.
Grantham went for a late push to try and get back into contention before half time, they successfully pegged Mickleover back in their own half, but failed to test the defence to any consequence.
It was Mickleover who had the final chance of the half though in time added on, when Norkett went solo and cut in from the right, to have his shot saved by the keepers feet, and so it remained 2-0 as the half time whistle blew.
Grantham started the livelier of the two sides initially as the second half got underway, when Langford had a shot blocked from the edge of the box just two minutes into the restart.
It didn’t take long for Mickleover to regain their momentum, but Norkett’s run down the left wing after 50 minutes came to an end when he was hacked down on touchline.
Rowe continued to outpace the defence on the left but his shot after receiving a cross-field ball from the right was covered by the keeper.
Further changes were made on the hour as Atkinson and Taylor came on for Rowe and Keane.
Sports had another half chance after 70 minutes when Norkett put a ball through for Taylor to chase. He got the shot in but it was still rising as it reached the goal and sailed well over the bar.
Only a minute later Grantham broke again, forcing McDowell to save with his knees, which triggered a succession of corners before the ball was finally cleared.
Carter then replaced Richards after 76 minutes, but a few minutes later Dales was kicked on the head, our hosts were down to 10 men and Zoko came on for Taylor for the final seven minutes.
Zoko had only been on the field just over a minute, when Steggles called for the ball to be left, only to miss it himself. Zoko was then on hand to stab the ball home and it was 3-0.
There was a consolation though for Grantham when they were awarded a very soft penalty. Former Mickleover midfielder Andrew Wright stepped up to make it 3-1 with virtually the last kick of the game, but it was another dominant performance that sees Sports go into the hat for the next round.
