Nuneaton Town FC

Match report courtesy of Chris Bird;

Nuneaton Town Youth travelled to Sutton Coldfield to play Boldmere St.Michaels at the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground on Wednesday night, with Nuneaton needing to win to maintain their position at the top of the table and increase their lead to 5 points.

Nuneaton applied early pressure on Boldmere’s defence but didn’t create many clear goal scoring opportunities. However as the game progressed, Nuneaton looked more likely to score. Both teams found the pitch difficult to play good passing football, with hardly a blade of grass to be seen. In the 20th minute, Theo Lobel Graves held the ball up well on the edge of the box, after a fine pass from Abdul, before laying it off to Ryan Ball, who’s first time strike was heading into the bottom right corner of the net before the Boldmere keeper turned it around the post. Boldmere posed a threat on the counter attack but good defending from Josh Willis and Nathan Harrison meant they were unable to test Liam Richards in the Nuneaton goal. In the 30th minute, Nathan Cadby beat his marker on Nuneaton’s right, and was able to cross the ball to Brennan King. His excellently timed run into the box allowed him to get a toe onto the ball, but he was unable to convert the ball from close range. The ball rebounded off the keeper and fell kindly for King once again, but his shot was blocked well by a Boldmere defender to keep the score at 0-0 at half time.

The game was more open in the second half which meant that more chances were created for both sides. Matt Bird, Ryan Ball and Brennan King dominated the midfield and spread the ball around the pitch well despite the tricky conditions. Elliot Parrott, Nathan Cadby and Daniel Kavanagh proved to be a real threat for Nuneaton with their direct running styles. In the 55th minute Ryan Ball played a square pass to Matt Bird who struck the ball from 20 yards. The ball looked to be going into the back of the net but it hit the crossbar and rebounded to Theo Lobel Graves who was unlucky not to score. The breakthrough finally came in the 67th minute for Nuneaton. Ryan Ball picked up the ball in midfield and passed quickly into the path of Theo who carried the ball past one defender before calmly slotting the ball past the goalkeeper into the back of the net for his 7th league goal of the season, making the score 0-1 to Nuneaton. Nathan Cadby, was replaced by Jonah Thorpe in the 72nd minute. Brennan King won the ball in midfield in the 76th minute, before sliding a perfect through ball between the Boldmere defence into the path of Thorpe, who smashed the ball past the keeper to make the score 2-0 and settle Nuneaton’s nerves. Elliot Parrott was replaced by Connor Bates in the 80th minute. Boldmere continued to push on to try and get back in the game and were unlucky not to pull a goal back for themselves when their striker headed the ball past Richards in the Nuneaton goal from a well taken free kick. However the goal was disallowed as the striker had strayed offside. In the 88th minute it was Thorpe once again who made the difference, as his cross found Brennan King on the penalty spot, who was able to make up for his earlier missed opportunities and convert the ball into the goal from close range.

The final score was Boldmere St Michaels 0 Nuneaton Town 3

We wish Boldmere all the best for the rest of their season.