Main Menu

20 January 2007

Hard earned point for thirds

North Notts 3rd XI 2 Coalville Town 3rd XI 2

DTZ 3rd XI East Midlands Division One

After being awarded a 3-0 walkover win for last weekends top of the table clash with second-placed Coventry & North Warwick, who failed to turn up for the game, Coalville went into this game against third-placed North Notts full of confidence.

Town started brightly against the physical Mansfield-based side, and after five minutes Coalville had taken the lead. Skipper Darren Conway won the ball in midfield and dribbled forward to the edge of the dee and passed the ball to Carl Clay. Clay created a little bit of room hit a well placed shot into the bottom corner of the goal to give Coalville the perfect start.

The game then became something of a midfield battle, with Notts living up the reputation with some bone crunching tackles. But despite their physical approach, North Notts can play some decent hockey and levelled the game 10 minutes later.

Coalville keeper Greg Tongue made a couple of excellent saves, but the Coalville defence could not clear the ball and a Notts forward came in and crashed the ball home into the top corner of the goal.

Town had a few more chances to score after this, with Conway and Gareth Toyer both being denied by good saves from the North Notts keeper.

The umpires then began to have their say on the game, as a couple of dodgy tackles were missed and when Dave Mee went to speak to the umpire was promptly shown a yellow card and kept off the field of play for 10 minutes.

Coalville shut up shop and defended well as unit to deny North Notts chances and went in level at the break. Town then lost the inspirational Simon Calkin to a thigh injury and were forced to reorganise the defence, with Simon Clare moving into the middle alongside Simon Wyatt and Andy Greaves and Adam Whitehall in the full back positions.

Shortly after returning to the fray, Mee went with inches of restoring the Town lead. From a penalty corner, the ball was switched right were the Coalville midfielder struck the ball towards goal, only to see it cannon back off the post.

The game then had another controversial moment when Clay flicked a penalty corner effort towards goal. The North Notts keeper saved it and pushed it into the air before landing on it. Toyer sniffed a chance and went in hard with his stick in an attempt to turn the ball home, only for the North Notts keeper to retaliate resulting in a bit of a melee. After it had all calmed down, both Toyer and the North Notts keeper were yellow carded, resulting in a long delay as the keeper unkitted and a team mate had to put the kit on.

Coalville sought to take advantage of their opponents having a makeshift goalkeeper, but it wasn't until Toyer was allowed to return to the fray that they managed to regain the lead. Mark Webster picked the ball up on the left and passed the ball to Toyer who went round a couple of challenges before striking home.

The home keeper was then allowed back into the game, resulting in another delay while his team mate got unkitted and he got kitted up again. Town then went very close to making it 3-1 when Chris Pearson hit a shot which also came back off the upright.

At this point, it was Coalville who were knocking on the door to sealing the victory and both Clay and Toyer went close to adding to the tally. But with seven minutes left, another penalty corner effort for the home side was blocked by the Town defence, only for the rebound to be scrambled home.

Both sides tried hard for a winner, but had to settle for a draw which is more useful for Town than their opponents in the promotion race. Town remain on top of the DTZ East Midlands Division One, three points ahead of Coventry & North Warwick and at least four points clear of the sides chasing the top two.