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Missed chances cost fourths

Leicester 4th XI  3  Coalville Town 4th XI  2

Bodykraft Central League South East Division One

Coalville's fourth string saw their dominance of long periods of this game count for nothing as local rivals Leicester came from behind to secure all three points.

Town settled down early and played some decent hockey, although it wasn't until around the 25 minute mark that Coalville opened the scoring with a superb goal. The ball was picked up in a defence and shifted around at the back between Liam Bates, Tom Sloan and Chris Ashton.

Sloan moved forward into midfield and slipped it into the path of Josh McArthur on the wing. McArthur drove forward before sliding the ball into the path of Jordan Ward, and the young Coalville centre forward blasted the ball home.

But this seemed to wake Leicester up and they hit back quickly to level the game with a hotly disputed goal which Coalville claimed was blatantly scored with the back of the stick, but to no avail.

Just when it looked as though the sides were going to go into the interval all square, Coalville again regained the lead with a strange goal. McArthur again picked the ball up out wide and attempted to cross the ball from the baseline just inside the dee. Somehow, though, the ball went straight into the goal despite the acute angle and although the umpire initially wasn't sure if the ball had been struck inside or outside the dee, the goal was eventually rightly given.

Coalville should have gone on from this in the second half and sealed the win, with Carl Clay guilty of wasting some good chances, and Ezra Watson also blasting a chance over the crossbar.

Leicester then levelled when their skillful central midfielder burst through and fired home past Rob Houghton in the Town goal, and then sealed the win themselves when another effort trickled over the line. Town will be hoping to bounce back by beating Rugby and East Warwick next weekend.