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7 October 2006

Surprise defeat for seconds

Leicester Westleigh 2nd XI  3  Coalville Town 2nd XI  2

DTZ 2nd XI East Midlands Division One

Coalville's second string saw their good work from the previous DTZ 2nd XI East Midlands Division One game come unstuck with a patchy performance against a dogged Leicester Westleigh side.

Town dominated the first half to such an extent that they should have been out of sight by half time, but their wastefulness in front of goal ultimately cost them dear.

Coalville came out of the blocks quickly, and were soon pinning Westleigh deep in their own half. Scott Meadows and Andy Whitby both had chances, but failed to hit target. Niki Arnold was then denied by the home keeper and Coalville threatened to run riot early on.

It was no surprise when Town eventually did make the breakthrough from a penalty corner. Arnold saw his strike saved by the keeper, but in the ensuing scramble Brent Clamp was on hand to tap home from close range.

Coalville continued to make a host of chances, but were still misfiring in front of goal. Whitby saw a couple of chances flash wide, one a glorious opening that he fired into the side netting. Meadows was guilty of missing a host of chances, and Arnold continued to lose his running battle with the Westleigh keeper.

It took skipper Tony Crowie to eventually show his troops the way to goal. And what a goal! Crowie picked the ball up in his own half, beat three players before getting into the dee and firing a thundering strike into the back of the goal to make it 2-0.

It looked all so easy for Town, but Westleigh rode the storm, and soon a blunder at the back allowed a Westleigh player to dummy the ball around Coalville keeper Paul Marston and play the ball across goal for a colleague to steer home.

Town will still confident of romping home in the second half if they continued to play the way they had in the first period. But, it seemed the first half exertions had taken a lot out of Coalville, while Westleigh reorganised and came out stronger themselves.

Ten minutes into the second half and Coalville were stunned again as another ball was played across the Town dee for a Westleigh player to fire home at the far post.

Coalville knew they had it all to do again, and again tried to push forward, with Glen Marston and Dave Mee rampaging forward from right and left back to support the midfield. Arnold saw another go wide, while Mick Clarke saw another half chance go begging. Meadows continued to mis-fire on the right, seeing another couple of half decent chances go begging.

And it was the missed chances that were to prove so dear for Town. With around five minutes remaining, Westleigh split the stretched Coalville defence to allow a player through on goal. Marston came out and brought the player down and the umpire gave a penalty stroke. 

Despite Marston getting some of his stick to the stroke, he couldn't keep it out, and Town were tumbling to an unexpected defeat, that certainly didn't look likely when they lead 2-0.

Town face a tough trip to Northampton Lions on Saturday.