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Trophy dreams ended

Coalville Town 1 Stratford 2 

Harrod UK Trophy Round One

Coalville's flood of goals on the Saturday couldn't be repeated in Sunday's game against West Midlands Premier Division side Stratford as Town lost narrowly.

Coalville will rue a number of missed chances and another sluggish to start to the game that ultimately cost them in a game they could easily have won.

The Town defence of Glen Marston, Gareth Gamble, Andy Newman and Mike Browbank coped well with some early Stratford pressure, and keeper Paul Marston made a couple of decent saves to keep Stratford out.

But Coalville conceded possession cheaply inside their own 25m area and the ball was played back for a Stratford player to blast the ball home and make it 1-0.

Coalville fought hard to try and get back on terms and Chris Vernon saw a shot well saved by the Stratford keeper. Town also won a string of penalty corners, but failed to capitalise on any of them.

At the other end, shortly before the interval, Stratford switched a penalty corner and managed to scramble the ball home to make it 2-0 before the break and leave Coalville with a mountain to climb.

Coalville made a much better fist of it in the second half, dominating the play and largely camping themselves in the Stratford half. Ryan Mason soon saw a shot deflected wide, while Sign and Vernon were both denied by good saves from the Stratford keeper.

Liam McArthur also went close for Coalville, but his shot hit the sideboards rather than the back of the goal. Eventually, though, Coalville did find a way through when Niki Arnold slipped the ball into the path of Mason and he swept home with 15 minutes remaining.

Shortly after that Coalville had a golden opportunity to level the game up when the ball fell to Arnold's stick about six yards from goal, but the Coalville striker failed to connect properly and left the Stratford keeper with simple save.

Coalville again won a string of penalty corners, but failed to make them count. At the other end, Stratford did get the ball into the goal, but only after a player had kicked the ball meaning it did not stand.

As it was, despite all of Town's pressure, Stratford clung on to secure passage to Round Two of the Harrod UK Trophy, leaving Coalville to concentrate on the league.