Main Menu

13 January 2007

Big win for seconds

Barton 2nd XI  1  Coalville Town 2nd XI  2

DTZ 2nd XI East Midlands Division One

Coalville picked up a huge win in their bid to gain promotion from the DTZ East Midlands Division One at Barton.

The win takes Town six points clear of the pack chasing them and leaders Northampton Lions, and leaves Barton seven points adrift of Coalville.

Town took the early play to their hosts and nearly went ahead in the first few minutes when first Phil Sign and then Scott Meadows forced saves from the Barton keeper.

It was something of a surprise when Barton took the lead on the 11 minutes. Coalville lost possession inside the Barton 23 metre area and the home side hit Town on the break, with their skilful forwards making the most of the space to score.

But back came Town, with Sign and Stuart Jobburn in the centre of the park driving them on and commanding the middle of the pitch. Barton packed their defence to try and defend their lead and then hit on the break, with Joel Barker being forced into good saves on a couple of occasions.

But it was the Barton keeper who was much the busier, denying Niki Arnold, Meadows, Sign and Darren Ward all in quick succession.

Town went in at half time a goal down, but changed tactics after the break and started to use the pace and trickery of Meadows on the right flank much more effectively. Again, though, Sign and Arnold were denied by the keeper, while Ward fired a good chance wide.

Just when it looked as though it might not be Town's day, they came up with the answer in the 52nd minute. Skipper Tony Crowie combined with Sign in the midfield and slipped the ball to Jobburn who unleashed a superb shot through a melee of players and into the goal.

Still the Barton keeper kept Town at bay, though, pulling off several more superb saves. Again, Coalville looked for something special and, once again, they found it. Sign slipped the ball to Meadows, who weaved around a number of Barton tackles before blasting the ball high into the goal to give Town the lead.

There was then a nervy 15 minutes to endure, with both sides missing chances. Carl Marshall, Jobburn, Ian Wright and Steve Partner stood firm for Town, with Partner producing a superb last gasp tackle to deny Barton a clear goalscoring opportunity. Town could have sewn the game up, but again the Barton keeper denied Brent Clamp and Ward.

Coalville are now in a very strong position, and face a possible championship decider against Northampton Lions in two weeks. But next week revenge will be in mind when lowly local rivals Leicester Westleigh visit King Edward VII College.