by Peter Scherer
Having already come through two qualifying rounds of the FA Youth Cup, Mickleover Youth Team faced Lutterworth at the Don Amott Arena last Friday.
It was end to end attacking from the start, with Jack Leighton firing in a telling cross from the right, but there was no one to collect.
Ronnie Bonser then sent Brandon Ferron down the left, with his cross earning a corner.
Lutterworth’s first chance came from a header just over from another corner, but it was Ferron that opened the scoring, beating two defenders before sliding his shot under the keeper 1-0.
Harry Atwal then fired in a free kick to the back post, but again no one there to receive, before a Lutterworth break was intercepted by Charlie Rock.
Mickleover kept pushing forward and Declan Brown was just beaten to a Ben Horleston pass by the visitors keeper.
Owen Parr then had a shot saved too and continuing pressure on the Lutterworth goal came from a series of Leighton crosses.
The home defence easily dealt with another free kick, before Leighton found Atwal, whose final pass reached Brown, but the shot was too high and it stayed at 1-0 as the half time whistle went.
Lutterworth pulled it back to 1-1 with an early second half header from a free kick and it wasn’t long before it was 1-2, from a Lutterworth break, which saw a rebound shot fired into the back of the net.
Brown then had a shot well saved by the visitors keeper, to earn a corner and Mickleover had to make a change with Dean Ironmonger on for Fin Ryder.
Ironmomger was straight into the action, holding the ball for Brown whose shot was deflected away.
As Leighton continued to cause problems for the visiting defence, Bonser and Ironmonger were close to connecting and Ferron had another Leighton cross deflected away.
Having seen negative sportsmanship and time wasting from Tamworth’s visit earlier last week, sadly Lutterworth played the same game, with an excessive amount of cramp seemingly afflicting their players.
It stayed at 1-2 and to the FA Youth Cup run is over for another season.
(Information supplied by Mickleover Reserves Twitter.)