by Peter Scherer (Images: Steve Ingers)
Hopes of returning to winning ways were dashed for Mickleover, as they went down 2-3 to Carlton Town in an ill-tempered affair.
Starting line-up: 1-Oliver Bosworth 2-Stanley Holder 3-Archie White 4-George Wilkinson 5-Brad Gascoigne 6-Ashton Offler 7-Dan Benson 8-Harry Wood 9-Josiah Dyer 10-Andy Dales 11-Thabang Dube. Subs: Fraser Corden, Stuart Beavon, Paddy Webb, Dorian Sulkowski, Liam Carter.
Table topping Carlton started the opening minutes looking fairly sharp and slick, which led to the opening goal after just three minutes. In a goal very reminiscent to the one in the Racing Club Warwick defeat, the home defence were beaten on the right, finding Ash Chambers who made no mistake in firing in the opener just inside the far post 0-1.
Mickleover soon got over the early blow and when Dales broke through the middle seven minutes later, he found Benson following up, firmly striking the equaliser passed the advancing Annan in the Carlton goal.
From thereon it became more even, and Carlton had another chance when Offler headed away a Thompson-Harrison free kick after 12 minutes.
A few minutes later Dyer got on the end of a break, winning a corner after his shot was blocked, from which Wilkinson went close too.
Dube almost put Dyer through after 18 minutes, just before visiting skipper Davie had a shot well wide, as both sides were started to look for breaks.
After Carlton’s 25th minute corner was cleared, Dales got a break and managed to charge into box, before losing his footing as the danger was cleared.
There was already the murmurings of verbal aggression from the visitors, both on an off the pitch. Carlton were awarded another free kick after 35 minutes, initially cleared, before falling to Manneh who struck his shot well over the bar.
Manneh had another shot wide five minutes later after being closed down by Offler, but it was Dean Freeman’s scything thigh high challenge on Dales that brought the verbal and physical aggression to its peak. It could easily have merited a red card, but the referee awarded yellow, with both Freeman and Nat Watson continuing to argue his innocence.
The situation worsened when Chambers and Carlton scored their second goal. Chambers was already stationery ahead of the defence, when the ball was chipped over the Mickleover backline. It appeared to be clear offside, even to Carlton fans behind the goal surprised that the goal stood, with the assistant failing raise his flag.
The whistle soon followed to end a less than memorable first half, when having expected a skilful game of football from our table topping visitors, we had been treated to much the opposite.
Hopes of improvement in the second half were soon dashed after Dyer had chased a long ball in the 55th minute. Annan charged out of his goal, there was slight contact, but the keeper went down as if he had been tasered.
Mickleover continued to try and play football and were quite creative in midfield, but continued to be met with excessive aggression on and off the ball, with Freeman and Watson the main perpetrators again.
Just before the hour mark Holder fired in a cross from the right, Dyer met it with a header that struck the post and then back to the keeper, before Dales had another run blocked.
Carter came on for Holder after 62 minutes, but two minutes later a ball in from the right found Dyer, but he couldn’t get the ball under sufficient control to hit the target. Carter then tried his luck and earned another corner.
Beavon then replaced Dyer and having only been on the pitch a couple of minutes, Beavon sent a curling shot just beyond the left hand upright, from Dube’s cross.
Corden then replaced Dube and concentrated on pushing for an equaliser, only for Carlton to get a break against the run of play, for Jason Law to make it 1-3.
Sulkowski was the next Mickleover sub on for his debut as Wood made way, followed by Webb for the last eight minutes, replacing Benson.
With one minute of normal time left Webb had a shot, but failed to test the keeper, before his second attempt struck home in time added on, after a perfect through ball from Beavon. 2-3.
Four players from each side were shown yellow cards, but an offside goal and the lack of censorship on the excessive aggression were the lasting memories of a disappointing game.
