Match Report

St Ives Town v Coalville Town

BetVictor League Southern Premier Central – 31-08-19

Ives supporters had waited over seven hours for a goal and when it came five minutes after the break it was one of the best taken goals that has been seen at Westwood Road in a long time. Andrew Osei-Bonsu held up a ball into his feet inside Ravens territory and fed the ball out to Ben Jackson roaming up the right. His first time cross into the centre picked out the late arriving Robbie Parker on the edge of the box and Parker finished to perfection first touch to steady the ball second touch a volley to flick it past the advancing Saul Deeley in the visitor’s goal. It was a goal worthy of winning any game but sadly for the fifth game in a row Ives gained no reward from the encounter.

Having fought so hard to get in front for the first time this season the hosts needed to hang onto that lead for at least twenty minutes to steady the ship. Unfortunately for them a needless Ty Ward trip inside the box on Ravens danger man Alex Dean only five minutes later gave leading scorer Kairo Mitchell chance to take his tally for the season up to five from the penalty spot. Ward’s ill-judged challenge appeared unnecessary as Dean looked unlikely to get to the Joe Charles-Doyle through ball that he was attempting to get on the end of but referee Christopher Horsman had a perfect view of the incident and he had no hesitation in pointing to the spot despite Ward’s claim that Dean had deliberately run into him.

Having got level the visitors then enjoyed a purple patch of about fifteen minutes during which they snatched the winner from their only other second half shot on target in 62^nd minute and no one was more surprised than the scorer Tom McGlinchey when his bobbling 25 yard effort crept just inside Conway’s right hand upright before the unsighted keeper was able to get down to stop it.  

The hosts had started the game well and were extremely unlucky not to break that goal drought as early as the twelfth minute when Osei-Bonsu and Jackson were again involved. The former doing well to keep alive a deflected low cross from the latter just in front of the near post. The striker making his first start of the season then had the presence of mind to get his head up and pick out Dan Clifton on the edge of the box. Clifton let fly a rasping drive that beat Deeley all ends up but cannoned back to safety off the crossbar.

Conway’s first action of the game came four minutes later when Scott McManus and McGlinchey combined well down the left before the latter cut inside and unleashed a low drive from 15 yards that a well positioned Conway blocked with his legs.

Ives then enjoyed a good spell during which they won a couple of free kicks in dangerous areas around the Ravens box but on both occasions Ward’s free kicks were a little far in front of the on-rushing attackers and even though Charlie De’ath hurled himself at the second of them he was unable to make any contact.

Osei-Bonsu and Jack Snelus combined well on edge of the box in 39^th minute with Snelus taking a return pass from his striking partner before going down just inside the box under challenge from Steve Towers but referee Horsman was again on the spot and he deemed that Ives tricky striker had dived and proceeded to issue him with a yellow card much to the chagrin of Ives faithful.

The final opportunity before the break went the way of the visitors in 43^rd minute and it proved to be probably the best chance in the first 45 minutes as McManus somehow manged to lose his marker at the back post to get on the end of a Charlie Jemson corner from the left. The stooping number three looked like he must score from his free header six yards out but fortunately for Ives he made poor contact and the ball flew wide of the post leaving the big full back holding his head in disbelief. 

All of the action in the first twenty minutes after the break has already been described above and after waiting so long and working so hard to get in front falling behind so quickly seemed to knock the stuffing out of Ives and it took them a while to get back into their stride. 

The visitors continued to show a lot of movement going forward with the lively Dean always ready to probe on the right. He was involved in a flowing 74^th minute move which ended with Tim Berridge teeing up Luke Shaw for a well struck shot from 20 yards that flew over the top.

Manager Ricky Marheineke made a double change to try and freshen up his attack with twenty minutes to go with Ben Seymour-Shove and George Bailey replacing Ollie Snaith and Ward respectively but most of the Ives danger seemed to be coming from the probing runs of Parker and Snelus. Snelus had a snap shot deflected wide in 76^th minute and Parker almost got through on a couple of occasions. 

Some De’ath long throws and a couple of late corners gave Ives chance to load the box but like everything else that had gone down the Ravens end in the air any ball into the box seemed to be drawn like a magnet to the shining bald head of the rugged Jack Duggan. The ex Stourbridge man showed his mettle having picked up a knock with 15 minutes to go he limped through the remaining time and still managed to be in the right spot to get everything that came into the danger zone. Such was his success in keeping Ives at bay that the only two saves keeper Deeley had to make in the closing stages were comfortable gathers of long range efforts from Seymour-Shove and Snelus.

The final action of the game simply showed Ives frustration at again getting nothing from a performance worthy of some reward. With only moments left on the clock Shaw broke away following an Ives corner and De’ath was perhaps a little lucky to pick up only a yellow card for his cynical challenge to halt the Raven’s midfielders progress.

This result sees the Ravens sitting just outside the play-off places and as the only unbeaten side in the division. But for Ives only two goals and one point from the first six games leaves them unsurprisingly rooted in the relegation places. The galling thing is that the performance in every game has been worthy of some reward and chances have been created by sadly not taken. However things to not get any easier as next up is a visit from in-form Division One Central leaders Berkhamsted in the FA Cup.

Final Score : St Ives Town   1    Coalville Town   2 

Goals : Parker 50

St Ives team : Conway, Jackson, Ward (Bailey 70), Jarvis Wilson, Kelly, De’ath, Clifton, Parker (capt), Osei-Bonsu (Dylan Wilson 84), Snelus, Snaith (Seymour-Shove 70)

Unused subs : Johnson & Woodward

Man of match : Robbie Parker

Attendance  :  154

Report by Nigel Howlett. Video by Dave Hook