Tipton Town 1-0 Boldmere St. Michaels
Boldmere's long unbeaten run was cruelly ended as they exited the FA Carlsberg Vase thanks to a single stoppage-time goal at Aspire MFA rivals Tipton Town. The game was a hard-fought scrappy affair throughout, with little flowing football on show.
Midway through a tight first half with little goalmouth action, the Mikes were first to threaten with skipper Stuart McNaught's superb 25-yard strike crashing back off the bar with Wes Cox well beaten in the home goal.
Tipton skipper Danny Bragoli then brought a fine save from Adam Jenkins with a similar strike as the half drew to a close. Boldmere started the second half on top, with Kirk Smith's vicious free kick evading everybody and flashing just wide. Cox then had to be alert to tip over a misdirected defensive header as it looped towards goal.
Boldmere's set pieces continued to cause the home side problems, Adam Wood going close with a header from a corner. Tipton responded well, enjoying their best spell of the game. In what seemed a personal battle between the game's two outstanding players, Mikes' keeper Jenkins produced two superb saves to deny Nathan Jones. Bragoli then clipped the outside of the post from a 20-yard free kick.
The action swung back towards the home goal. Mikes substitute Lee Osborne turned his defender and sent a swerving 20 yarder flashing just wide. Anthony Juxon was unable to continue his shooting exploits of recent weeks, firing wide from a decent position late on.
With extra time looming, it was Tipton who settled matters in the second minute of stoppage-time. The Mikes lost possession on the edge of the Tipton area. In the best move of the game, the hosts broke at speed with a sweeping move finding late substitute Chris Turner on the right wing. His excellent low cross was turned home at the near post by Nathan Jones.
With no time left to respond, the late defeat was bitterly disappointing for the Mikes, but the black country side probably just about shaded a tight affair.
1. JENKINS 2. SWAIN 3. JACKSON 4. WOOD 5. HAMILTON 6. McNAUGHT 7. JUXON 8. SMITH(K) 9. HOLMES 10. MASON 11. BAKER
SUBS 12. HANLON 13. LANE 14. OSBORNE (on 64 mins) 15.
ROBINSON 16. TULLOCH
