Midland Football League

Premier Division

Tuesday 15th November 2016

Coventry United FC 5-1 Tividale FC

Tividale fail to be United

Despite the return of some of the players missing at the weekend. Manager Dave King made only the one enforced change to the team that won so well at St Andrews, bringing in Matt Hunt to replace the unavailable Joe Woodall.

Unfortunately the visitors were unable to reach the heights of the weekend and went down heavily to a very good home side, fielding a few players who would have been comfortable at a couple of levels higher. Yet for the first third of the game Tividale were fairly comfortable and apart from a couple of scares restricted United to long range efforts. Tividale threatened first on 7 minutes when Craig Stevens found Jordan Potter out on the left but his whipped in cross flashed across the 6 yard box and just evaded forward Charles Wilson. A minute later and United’s Josh O’Grady had Luke Kriskinans diving at full strength to steer his shot around the post for a corner.

The game then moved into a period of scrappy play only broken up by some petty fouls that the referee clamped down on with some even pettier bookings. On 20 minutes midfield star Kevin Thornton had a shot that cleared the bar and followed that up with another one that went the same way a minute later. Stevens then found Joe Kenton on 32 minutes but the wide man’s shot was well blocked by United defender Lewis Hudson.

The home side took the lead on 39 minutes when Muziwandile Nduna went down on the edge of the Tividale box and Centre back
Robert Prinzel’s hard and low strike beat Kriskinans.

Half Time :-Coventry United FC 1-0  Tividale FC

Coventry nearly doubled their lead when on 53 minutes a O’Grady shot came back off the Tividale bar. Then a Pierre Moudime effort flashed literally across the face of Kriskinans and the ball fell to Simeon Townsend whose effort was cleared by Karl Gardner.

Completely against the run of play Stevens tried his luck from range and beat United keeper Richard Morris in the bottom corner to draw Tividale level in the 57th minute. They were only level for one minute  when Thornton went down under a challenge from Shane Grainger and Chris Cox stepped up and put United back in front from the spot. Grainger then played in substitute Dan Smith and his first time shot was well saved by Morris. Back up the other end and Nduna tried an effort that went wide. Moudime then charged into the box from the right but Kriskinans saved his shot well. But the full back was not to be denied for long and on 68 minutes he finished well firing past Kriskinans after another run down the right.

Tividale now had no choice but to go gung ho and on 73 minutes United scrambled the ball away after a Gardner header at the back post caused a panic in the Coventry defence. Coventry then hit Tividale on the counter. Somehow Townsend was able to wriggle free of his marker Matt Hunt, played a one-two with O’Grady that split the Tividale defence, rounded Kriskinans and stroked the ball home. The visitors kept on coming forward and on 82 minutes Morris again had to make a smart save, this time denying sub Lewis McPike. From the corner Gardner had another headed chance that was deflected for a corner and from that one Liam Smith headed against the bar.

Tividale were further punished while pressing for a consolation when from a Tividale corner, O’Grady broke played the ball into Abdul Muhammad  in support.  Muhammad  then passed the ball back to O’Grady who slotted home in what was the last kick of the game.

Full Time :-Coventry United FC 5-1 Tividale FC

Tividale FC:- I. Luke Kriskinans, 2. Tom Hurdman, 3. Darragh Bustin, 4. Karl Gardner, 5. Matt Hunt, 6. Shane Grainger (14. Liam Smith 65), 7. Joe Kenton, 8. Craig Stevens, 9. Charles Wilson, 10. Jamie Hunt (12. Dan Smith 58), 11. Jordan Potter (17. Lewis McPike 65).

Unused Subs:-16. Seegu Seebah, 15. Matt Preston.