Damage in the Box!: COALVILLE TOWN (Owen Street Sports Ground)

It was quarter final day in the vase today with the remaining 8 sides having the, err, large arch of Wembley in their sights (doesn't have the same ring as the twin towers does it?). After seeing Torpoint win in the last round I really wanted to follow them on their trip to Poole Town, but I simply couldn't face the drive down to Dorset. I therefore settled on another interesting looking tie in North West Leicestershire.

It was to the Owen Street Sports Ground I headed as Coalville Town (top of the Midland Alliance) were entertaining Leiston (top of the Eastern Counties League) for a place in the semi final, both teams enjoying their best ever runs in the competition. On paper, it seemed there was nothing between them on current form. However, the reality proved otherwise.

On a bitterly cold, drizzly and grey afternoon, Coalville had no problems overcoming their opponents from Suffolk. The only surprise is that they only managed to score just the one goal. The Ravens (the nickname comes from Coalville's original name of Ravenstone Miners Athletic) virtually dominated the game from start to finish.

The attacking trio of Matt Moore, Matt Gardener and Ryan Robbins caused problems for most of the game, especially the big No9 Moore, who Leiston simply could not handle. Indeed Moore should really have put the game to bed before half time, but he wasted some very good chances, the worst being a virtual open goal but somehow he manged to hit the underside of the bar, rather than the back of the net, and the ball bounced away to safety. He also hit the crossbar with another header but at least that was bad luck.

Ultimately the Homesters dominance had to pay off and it was 10 minutes into the second half when they grabbed what proved to be the winner. A ball was played into the box and Gardener battled away before the ball broke loose to Anthony Carney, who fired home through a ruck of players. Leiston didn't really have an answer to that and their cause wasn't helped when Neil Calver was shown a second yellow card. The game became more niggly but Coalville had done enough and moved themselves a step closer to Wembley. There was a good crowd of 558 in attendance today and the majority of them went home very happy bunnies.