Central Midlands League Reserves Supreme Division
Staveley Miners Welfare (1) 3
Chris Coy 9, Scott Ellis 58, Chris Gilson 76
Dunkirk FC (1) 2
Macauley Diuk 35, Joe Richardson (pen) 65
Admission £2, Programme 50p
Ta very much to Ele Reaney, the bestest signing Staveley Miners Welfare will ever make, for the team sheet details ... and to Ray Marsh, for bringing his ever plentiful supply of sweets.Staveley Miners Welfare:
Sam West, Ross Goodwin, Thomas Jenkins, Brad Jones, Ryan Lawty, Dwane Wiley, Scott Ellis, Liam Royles, Aaron Moxam, Chris Coy, Alex Torr
Subs - Pat Lindley, Joe Bytheway, Kurtis Morley, Chris Gilson
Dunkirk FC:
Josh Hourd Lee, Lewis Wilcox, Joe Richardson, Jordan Tarr, Danny Miller, Declan Flowers, Joe Smith, Kelechi Duru, Antony Atkins, Macauley Diuk, Will Coutts
Subs - Joe Brown, Jack Upton, Jermaine Ward
Credit where it's due; tonight's visitors from Nottingham, gave the reigning league champions a real game of it, after they had absorbed a lot of pressure in the opening half an hour. But from then on in, Dunkirk were still in the game right up until the final whistle.Staveley had enough chances to have finished the game off before Dunkirk pulled a goal back, but after that point it was a fairly evenly balanced match, which could've gone either way.
Staveley created the better of the chances, but they've got to start taking more of them.
Over the entire 90 minutes, the home side certainly did enough to warrant the win, but Dunkirk will probably consider themselves unfortunate not to have taken a point from the game.Even before Staveley took the lead on 9 minutes, when Chris Coy had a second bite after having his initial effort blocked by Josh Hourd Lee, they had already seen Aaron Moxam and Alex Torr narrowly fail to hit the target and Dwane Wiley had pulled out a stop from Hourd Lee, when he'd dispossessed Lewis Wilcox and dribbled into the visitors box.
At the other end, Sam West had to be alert when Antony Atkins and Danny Miller tested him.
Josh Hourd Lee was called into action again, twice, pulling off a great save from Wiley and pushing a long distance shot from Chris Coy round the post.
Dunkirk tightened things up in the middle of the park and started to get into the game a bit more. Kelechi Duru tried his luck from 20 yards out but Sam West saved and Antony Atkins fired narrowly wide.
On 38 minutes, Macauley Diuk pulled the visitors level with a great finish from out on the left hand side of the box.
The teams went in all square at 1-1 at half time and Staveley must've been cursing their luck that they hadn't put the finishing touches to the chances they had created when they came storming out of the blocks.
Jack Upton had made his mark on the game since coming on as a substitute towards the end of the first half and was helping to galvanise the Dunkirk midfield.
The second half carried on at the same relentless pace with first one team then the other looking to force the issue. Both defences and goalkeepers were being kept on their toes.In the 58th minute, Josh Hourd Lee pulled off two point blank saves in quick succession, but the ball was only half cleared and fell to Scott Ellis, who smashed an unstoppable shit into the goal from the right hand edge of the area.
Chris Coy tested Hourd Lee again, but the Dunkirk keeper turned the ball away for a corner. Dwayne Wiley headed the flag kick from Scott Ellis wide.
Dunkirk counter attacked through Antony Atkins and as the visitors centre forward went round Sam West, the Staveley keeper caught him with his outstretched hand. Joe Richardson hammered the resultant penalty kick home and Dunkirk were level again.
Staveley attacked again and Dwayne Wiley crashed the ball against the Dunkirk crossbar, Aaron Moxam was on hand to head the equaliser home, but the linesman flagged that he had been in an offside position before he scored and the referee chalked the goal off.
Moxam was in the thick of it again when Brad Jones put him through on goal, but Hourd Lee thwarted Staveley yet again, but agonisingly for the Dunkirk keeper the loose ball fell to Chris Gilson who bulged the back of the net from 10 yards out.
Late in the game, Sam West punched a long ball into his six yard box away from goal which fell to Antony Atkins, but the lively Dunkirk centre forward hit the ball narrowly wide of the mark.
Great entertainment again, as these Inkersall Road Thursday night games always are, with both teams playing their part in putting on a great game of football.
Final score: Staveley Miners Welfare 3 v Dunkirk FC 2.
No photographs tonight, I felt sure that Staveley's in house photographic genius Barry R Dyke would be in attendance and I knew that he would let me pinch some of his professional snaps to stick on this 'self indulgent bullshit blog, with added football content'.
Alas, he was nowhere to be seen
