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13 January 2007

Not a happy new year for Town

Coalville Town 1 Barton 4

DTZ East Midlands Premier Division

County Drains-sponsored Coalville Town find themselves being drawn into a fight against relegation from the DTZ East Midlands Premier Division after a poor performance saw them well beaten at home by fellow strugglers Barton.

Town were sluggish from the off, and although they occasionally showed signs of shaking off the rust built up over the Christmas break, they were up against an improving opponent, who'd won three games on the trot before the winter break.

The visitors were soon troubling the Coalville backline of Andy Newman, Gareth Gamble and Mick Clarke, and Coalville's only answer was on the break, with the dangerous Ryan Mason linking up well with strike partner Adam Barnett.

But Barton were keeping possession better than Town, and after conceding possession in midfield, the ball was played across the Town dee. A player collected the ball and managed to create enough of a gap to beat Liam McArthur and blast a fierce strike past Paul Marston's near post.

Coalville showed some spirit and a Chris Vernon penalty corner strike went narrowly wide shortly afterwards. Mason also managed to dance his way through the Barton defence but could only blaze his shot well wide.

At the other end, Barton had a clear opening but their forward blazed over the crossbar. But the same player soon made it 2-0. A bit of hesitation in the Town defence allowed the player to waltz through and round Marston and slot home.

Coalville tried to gee themselves up at half time, and although they came out fired up, were soon 3-0 down when a player was allowed too much room and slotted home between Marston and Gamble on the goalline.

Town fought back, though, and after Mason had again gone close, Coalville found the way to goal. Andy Newman drove forward from the back and hit a cross-shot towards the far corner which Barnett was able to deflect home past the Barton keeper.

This gave Town hope, but their momentum was somewhat broken when a player was yellow carded for speaking out of turn to the umpire. Still Coalville could have scored again when Mason raced clear and shot towards goal only for a defender to get back in the nick of time to clear off the line.

Coalville had then just been returned to 11 players when another player let frustration get the better of them, and Town were back down to 10 players again. This time it proved decisive as Barton broke forward, Marston slid out and blocked the first effort, but could only parry the ball back into the path of the same player, who fired home to make it 4-1.

Town again went close to scoring a second when Barnett also saw an effort cleared off the line, while another Vernon penalty corner effort was well saved. But Barton went close to a fifth in the final minute when the ball was played across the area and a player met the ball at the far post, but fired wide.

Coalville will need to do much better than this when they face local rivals Leicester Thursday, whose promotion hopes from DTZ East Midlands Premier Division seem to be fading fast.