Main Menu

Fine display earns great win

Coalville Town 3rd XI  3  Mansfield 3rd XI  1

Bodykraft 3rd XI East Midlands Premier Division

Coalville's third string produced a superb display to convincingly defeat a Mansfield side who lay in third-place in the Bodykraft East Midlands Premier Divison at the start of the day.

Town controlled this game from start to finish and right from the off seemed to be the side who were more up for it. Mansfield, who were fielding an experienced side containing a number of former 1st XI players, seemed fairly one dimensional, relying on long balls out of defence which Jaswinder Randhawa, Simon Calkin, Simon Clare and Darren Ward in the Town defence found easy to mop up.

Coalville soon won a string of penalty corners, and Dave Mee was soon forcing a good save out of the Mansfield keeper. Jordan Ward and Mark Webster were constant menaces on either flank, and Ward soon saw another good effort well saved by the Mansfield keeper.

The Coalville pressure was growing, and it was no surprise when they eventually broke through. The ball was pinging around the Mansfield dee and eventually broke out for Glen Marston, playing a new central midfield position, at the edge of the dee and his shot was hard and low into the bottom corner and gave the Mansfield keeper no chance to make it 1-0.

Coalville continued to dominate the game, with Randhawa and Calkin in complete command at the back. Town managed to double their advantage moments before the interval.

Coalville were awarded a free hit on the edge of the Mansfield dee. The ball was played into the area but was cleared out where Randhawa picked the ball up and played a superb slide-rule ball back across the area where Jordan Ward was on hand to slap the ball home past the Mansfield keeper.

The second half continued to see Coalville in complete control, and they soon went 3-0 up. Ward picked the ball up on the halfway line and slipped it through for Marston. He combined with Steve Partner and Mee before slipping Partner in to smash home the third goal.

Having gone three-down, Mansfield began to lift their play a little and began to come back into the game. Town keeper Greg Tongue was forced into a couple of smart saves, and a few cracks began to appear in the Coalville defence.

With 10 minutes left, Mansfield did finally get a goal back when their dangerous centre forward managed to get a reverse stick shot away on goal, and it flew past Tongue into the bottom left hand corner.

But no one could deny that Coalville deserved the win, and they came very close to making it 4-1 when Mee was slipped away on goal after good combination work between Partner and Chris Pearson, but Mee could only look on in disappear as his shot cannoned back off the post - he's still waiting for that first goal of the season!

So a fine display from Coalville, who will look to continue their winning form going when they travel to struggling Northampton Saints on Saturday.