Boldmere St. Michaels Reserves 3-1 Atherstone
Challenge Trophy Semi-Final 2nd leg
Challenge Trophy holders Mikes turned around a one goal deficit to march through to their second final of the season after a stunning first half display turned the two legged tie on its head.
Boldmere dominated from the first whistle with their electrifying pace up front a constant thorn to the visiting defence coupled to Mikes high tempo and inventive midfield it was only going to be a matter of time before Mikes found the net, and so it turned out ex Mike, Adam Adler had his pocket picked by the insatiable Kevin Buxton to set up skipper Simian Tulloch to rifle into the roof of the net, another goal was to follow with the industrious Tom Clews finishing another stunning move from the rampant Mikes.
Towards the end of the first half the battered and bruised body of Scott Barker was felled yet again, this time inside of the penalty area leaving Tulloch to seal Mike’s passage into the final.
HT Boldmere 3 v 0 Atherstone
The second half saw the visitors make three changes and come out much more determined and with Mikes trying to play a controlling game, Atherstone became more and more prominent, with fifteen minutes gone a poor kick out of goal from the normally excellent Shaun Butler had the Mikes on the back foot with the ball eventually falling kindly for an Adders forward to finish with venom!
This was the spur that Atherstone needed and at every opportunity they threw players forward, but the resilience of the magnificent Andre Calder ably supported by a returning to form of Jamie Fisher kept the attacks in check for the most part. Mikes were hitting the adders on the break and three or four times wasted good opportunities to finally extract the adder’s sting.
But after withstanding one or two uncomfortable moments, Mikes finally made it through where they will meet long time adversaries Chasetown in what promises to be a cracking final.
FT Boldmere 3 v 1 Atherstone
Man of the match – Andre Calder
