Main Menu

Super display secures first win

Players 2nd XI  1  Coalville Town 2nd XI  2

Bodykraft 2nd XI East Midlands Premier Division

  Town’s 2^nd X1 came up with a hard working all round team performance against an experienced Players team to pull off a superb win on the unforgiving water based surface at Beeston, a ground familiar to the home side but a distinct disadvantage to any visiting team. 

This highly entertaining game, played at a furious pace, gave Town their first points of the season and on this display will put fear into the hearts of many teams playing them this season. In a team missing their captain Tony Crowie, Town welcomed back Stuart Jobburn and Darren Conway, pushing Richard Wright up into the right side of midfield, hoping that they would add more fight and skill to the middle which performed so poorly last week. 

The game opened up with end to end play as both sides looked to find an early breakthrough, but the early attempts to bring Town’s front runners into the game saw them crowded out by a packed defence. However with barely 10 minutes of the game gone, a serious face injury to one of Players’ midfield, called play to a halt and Richard Wright was called on to do his ‘day job’, as a doctor, the player eventually being taken to hospital for stitches to a deep cut. 

When play got back underway, Players right flank began to find a way through Town’s defence but shots on Joel Barker’s goal came to nothing. Players forced two penalty corners midway through the half, but again the goal attempts failed to find their mark. 

  Gradually Town came back into the game with some superb midfield play between Conway, Wright and Brent Clamp, and Players were forced back into their own half.  With Jobburn taking command of the area just behind midfield, Town found room down the right as Scott Meadows swept past his marker and his pass into the dee found Niki Arnold, whose shot flashed just wide. 

The play flowed end to end as both teams struggled to find the way through, and when Town’s defence was asked questions, Carl Marshall stood firm at the back. After 25 minutes Town got the ball into the home net, but the goal was ruled out as the ball hit Clamp’s foot in the scramble. The first half ended goalless.

  The second half opened up with Town in command as Jobburn, Wright, Clamp and Conway brushed aside the opposition, and after five minutes took a deserved lead. A break down the right by Meadows won a penalty corner and from the resultant play, Richard Wright stroked home the opening goal.

This seemed to wake the home side up and they poured forward in search of an equaliser. Pushing the ball around, Players broke into the visitors dee only to find Barker making a super sliding save as he rushed out to meet the incoming player, a feat he repeated a few minutes later. 

However the play was not all from the home side, as Arnold , Meadows and Clamp were finding acres of room in the Players half, but chances for all went begging. However with Conway, Jobburn and Sam Crowie joining in, Town took a two goal lead after 18 minutes. Another scything run down the right by Meadows broke through the home defence, and as the ball came across goal, Arnold got on the end of it to smash the ball home.

  As Players tried to find their way back, Town’s defence began to tighten their hold with both Ian Wright and Steve Partner putting in huge tackles on the flanks and with Marshall and Jobburn mopping up everything else, Barker found his workload a little lower this half, but when called on, did not let his team down. 

Frantic play by the home team found them in Town’s dee time and again, but the defence stood firm with everyone pulling their weight, however when Marshall missed his only tackle in the whole game right at the death, Players slipped in with a consolation score which was as much as they deserved.

  A superb all round performance from everybody saw Town break their duck for the season and although there was superb play on all parts of the pitch, no one stood out further than Richard Wright, who on this form, should make this position his own.