Some 77 days since our last victory on home soil, Long Eaton United finally recorded 3 Grange Park points, thanks to a blistering second half performance and an Evan Garnett hat-trick, which also took him past the 50-goal mark for the club.

After Garnett had given us the lead on 11 minutes, we were instantly behind, conceding twice in the next 3 minutes, but Garnett levelled on the stroke of half time from the spot, before The Blues took the game to Mickleover in the second period, and a further Garnett strike and a Dexter Walters finish at the death sealed the points.

REPORT:
Long Eaton United 4-2 Mickleover
Saturday 11 April 2026
Northern Premier League, Division 1 Midlands
At Grange Park, attendance 178

Long Eaton United grabbed a long overdue three points in an exciting see-saw of a match.

The Blues made one change to the starting line-up from Monday’s trip to Belper as George Atwal replaced Louis Bonser.

The Blues started strongly, a Tristan Thompson-Matthews cross into the area saw the ball cleared by the visitors defence, but it wasn’t at all convincing. Just a couple of minutes later, Long Eaton started a flowing move, Tristan Thompson-Matthews set James Taylor free, and JT’s quick cross ended up being netted by Evan Garnett. It looked like it came off his heel, we couldn’t be sure, but the result was a goal advantage to the Blues. It lasted all of two minutes, before an attack saw Manni Norket brought down in the area by Lewis King, the Mickleover striker dusting himself down to unleash a fierce penalty that gave Lewis no chance. Two minutes later and the game had been turned on its head as Lewis King went walkabout and was dispossessed by that man Norkett who said “thank you very much!” to slot the ball home from the edge of the area. Not a good three minutes for the Long Eaton keeper!

Mickleover continued to boss the rest of the first half, Captain Andy Dales sent a vicious shot at goal that produced a great save from Lewis on the half hour mark, and the same man had two clear efforts within a minute just before the break, both fortunately going just wide. With seconds left in the first half, the home side were awarded a gift of a penalty, what looked like an accidental collision was ruled a trip by the referee, and Evan Garnett stepped up to rifle home the equaliser. A Desmond at the break.

Long Eaton started the second period much more brightly, Evan Garnett straight into the thick of the action, whilst at the other end a good save from Lewis denied the visitors. Mickleover really should have taken advantage of another Lewis King trip out of the penalty area that led to the ball being lost again, but fortunately this time it came to nothing.

On 66 minutes, Evan blasted into the area to shoot home and give the Blues the lead. A hat-trick for the Midlands Division’s top scorer! And it could have been more, the Blues talisman breaking into the area once more just moments later, but this time the effort ran agonisingly wide.

As full time approached, the visitors threw everything into a last-ditch assault on the blues goal, three corners in succession being cleared after a scramble, and just as you thought a goal was coming, it duly arrived.....at the other end! A lovely passage of play from the Blues ended with Dexter Walters stroking the ball home from the edge of the area to wrap up the points.

A hard fought local derby, with plenty of action and very exciting to watch, but at the end of the day it’s the three points earned we were after, and a double over Mickleover for the season. That’s always nice, right?

Long Eaton United: Lewis King – Owen Betts – Gianluca Bucci – Callum Cocks – Jayden Cotterill – Jamie Hanson – Dexter Walters – George Atwal – Evan Garnett – Tristan Thompson-Matthews – James Taylor
Substitutes: Connor Pace (for Cocks 63) – Louis Bonser, Jahvan Davidson-Miller, Aaron Cole, Brad Munn (all unused)