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4 November 2006

Seconds come unstuck again

Coalville Town 2nd XI  1  Sikh Union (Coventry) 2nd XI  1

DTZ 2nd XI East Midlands Division One

Bottom of the table Sikh Union (Coventry) managed to steal a point off Coalville in their latest DTz East Midlands Division One fixture.

Coalville totally commanded this game, but as in certain games earlier this season, their finishing deserted them. Undoubtedly, though, a very poor and baffling umpire brought by the visitors didn't help matters either.

Town were on fire early on, with two players dropped from the first team, Chris Vernon and Stuart Jobburn, both prominent. Vernon and Andy Whitby both missing chances.

Coventry stuck six at the back and were clearly intent on coming for a point. Jobburn was spreading passes to all areas of the park, but once Town reached the 23 metre line of the visitors their attacks invariably broke down as they were met by a wall.

It was no surprise, though, when after 10 minutes Coalville took the lead. Vernon went on a run down the right flank and cut the ball back into the dee for Liam McArthur to slot home.

Captain Tony Crowie was now starting to get more and more involved in the play, and Town began to breach the Sikh Union defence with easy, only to see another brick wall, in the visitors' keeper, get in the way on several occasions.

In the 30th minute, and completely against the run of play, Sikh Union got an equaliser. A breakaway down the right caught Town on the hop and poor defending allowed a visiting player to blast home past Joel Barker in the Coalville goal.

The second half started in a similar manner, but the game was brought to a halt for a full 15 minutes when a Sikh Union player suffered a horrible injury to his head after his own keeper had kicked the ball just above his eye. An ambulance was called and the Coventry player shipped off to hospital.

On restarting, Town dominated but still didn't get anywhere. Poor finishing and some quite brilliant goalkeeping kept Coalville out.

As time began to tick by, Coalville started to become desperate and one or two illegal challenges crept in. This was all the ammunition the Sikh Union umpire needed - with first Jobburn and then Crowie receiving yellow cards, for offences that baffled everyone. Moments later, the visiting umpire admitted Jobburn shouldn't have been sinbinned, but still kept him off the park for a full 10 minutes!

But even with nine men, Town were never in any trouble, with Ian Wright holding the middle and Glen Marston and Steve Partner the flanks.

The last 10 minutes brought a hatful of chances for Coalville, but they were again wasteful or saw the visiting keeper somehow make a save. One in particular from Vernon had everyone scratching their heads asking 'How did he get to that?'

In the end, Town had to settle for a draw which could see them knocked off second place in the division. They will need to bring their shooting boots when they make the long journey to Derwent this weekend.