by Peter Scherer
Mickleover managed to reclaim sixth place in the Southern Premier League Central Division, after Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Royston Town.
A goal in the 10th minute by Sports leading scorer Andy Dales was all that separated the teams at the end of the 90 minutes, despite the Mickleover dominance.
With neighbours Ilkeston going down 1-2 at Alvechurch, Mickleover retook sixth and are two points clear with two games in hand.
This is how Royston manager Steve Castle viewed the game.
“A very disappointing result after a few very positive weeks especially at home but on Saturday we just didn’t turn up!
Why was that? I’m not sure. Was it possibly the fact that to get into playoffs was an extremely tough ask? Having said that there are still loads of points to play for so the incentive should always be there to win.
For me, too many of us just didn’t compete and we can’t and won’t stand for that! We should have got something out of the game but in truth had we got anywhere near our previous performance levels, we would have won that game at a canter. Yes, we had a few players missing but still, we had enough to get maximum points.
It’s often said that football is all about reactions – how you react to things on the pitch, off the pitch, how you react to results and setbacks and now we need to make sure we react properly to this disappointing performance and result. We need to bounce back and bounce back quickly. We’ve got the perfect opportunity in another home game to come this weekend. I sincerely believe that we owe it to ourselves to perform how we should.”
Sports Chairman Don Amott gave his view too, “We played so well. Could have been three or four up at half time. We hit the woodwork twice. Their goalie made some great saves too . The back four were fantastic, James Butler in particular. Disappointing attendance of 197, but all in all a great performance.”