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Town stop the home rot

Coalville Town 1 Boots 1

BodyKraft East Midlands Premier Division

Coalville picked up their first point at home this season with a disciplined display against old rivals Boots - and were only denied all three points by a late goal.

County Drains-sponsored Town came under pressure early on, but the previously gaping holes in the Coalville defence have been shored up and Darren Conway, Gareth Gamble, Adam Barnett and Liam McArthur dealt with all of Boots best early efforts.

One drag flick penalty corner went wide of the Town goal, but Coalville eventually began to get hold of the ball and started to use Mark Newman and Brian Robinson on the flanks effectively to create a few openings in the Boots defence.

One Robinson run created an opening for Ryan Mason, but his reverse stick effort flew over the bar. Boots then came close to opening the scoring when a shot deflected off Conway's stick and hit the Town post. Fortunately keeper Paul Marston was alert to scramble the rebound away.

Town then thought they had opened the deadlock when Phil Sign's cross found Mike Browbank and he fired home - only for the umpire to blow for an earlier foul rather than playing the advantage to Coalville's frustration.

Newman's trickery was causing his marker all sorts of problems, and eventually the Boots player made on dodgy tackle too many and received a green card. This was something Coalville then sought to exploit, with James Woodard slipping Newman away and he skipped past his marker and hit a shot towards goal which was well saved by the Boots keeper.

It remained goalless at the interval, and Boots again applied some early pressure. A penalty corner soon saw Marston make a fine double save, one with his foot from a strike and the other with his glove from the follow up flicked effort.

This seemed to drive Coalville on, and Mason again went close with a well struck shot that flashed across the face of goal. Town then got a moment of luck. A Boots mis-controlled the ball and Mason nipped in, robbed him of the ball and raced away to slot home under the visiting keeper to give Town a 1-0 lead with around 25 minutes left to play.

Both teams were then reduced to 10 men after Newman and a Boots player both saw yellow cards for what was, frankly, nothing more than handbags. Coalville looked the better side when they were down to 10 men, with McArthur blasting another shot that went close.

Boots then thought they were sure to score when the ball was pulled back to the middle of the Coalville goal where a player, unmarked from point blank range turned the ball goalwards. But Marston managed to get his shoulder onto the effort to turn it wide for a super save.

Boots must have thought that it wasn't to be their day when another shot smashed against the outside of the Coalville goal, while Barnett and Gamble continued to be absolute rocks at the heart of the Town defence.

But with less then 10 minutes to go, Boots' tactical change finally paid off when a player, again free in the area, managed this time to divert the ball high into the goal to final end Marston and his defence's resistance.

Both sides then sought a winner, with Browbank seeing a penalty corner strike blocked just in front of the goalline, and Newman also seeing a shot go just wide. At least with this result, though, Town's home hoodoo comes to an end. On Saturday, Town host highflying county rivals Melton at King Edward VII College, pushback at 2.30pm