Our final game on the road resulted in another 3 points for Brad Munn’s team as we defeated already relegated, Coventry Sphinx in a convincing 0-2 victory. This result saw us move back into the top half of the table, we sit 10th in the league on 55 points, before our final game of the NPL Midland’s division next Saturday at home against local rivals Basford United.

The Cameron Slater Arena, home of Coventry Sphinx, will be missed next season as they fall out of the Northern Premier League Midlands Division into the United Counties League. We have had many a notable trips to Sphinx Drive and, as a club, both on and off the pitch they have tremendous respect and ambition.

The first half on Saturday was pretty evenly matched, although we dominated possession for the majority and played some good football at times, clear chances were few and far between. A couple of dangerous counter attacks launched by The Sphinx resulted in either shots on Lewis Kings' goal or corners but they failed to trouble our defensive line and The Blues were looking comfortable at the back.

A lot of our moves went through either wing, with Bucci and the returning Jahvan Davidson-Miller linking up well on the left whilst Betts and James Taylor doing exactly the same on the right. Evan Garnett also pounced on a couple of misplaced back passes during the first half, the most notable being when Sphinx’s right full back left his keeper short about half an hour into the game, however Garnett's lobbed effort just didn’t follow the correct flight path to leave the home team embarrassed.

When the game resumed after the half time break, Callum Cocks had replaced Connor Pace in the centre of midfield. The Blues got right back to business, trying to break lines with clever passes, pushing high up the pitch to force mistakes from the home side and nipping any threat of counter attacks in the bud before they become a threat.

After putting in a great shift in the centre of the park, George Atwal was replaced by Mansfield Town loanee Louis Bonser in the 77th minute of the game, Bonser slotted into the left full back position moving Bucci into the centre of defence and pushing Jamie Hanson into the bottom of the base of the midfield.

Less than 2 minutes later The Blues found themselves penetrating The Sphinx’s box with Garnett on the ball. Looking to find half a yard for a shot at goal he was brought down by a clumsy attempt at a tackle, the ref took no time to blow his whistle and point to the penalty spot. Garnett stepped up to take the spot-kick, but surprisingly Evan’s confident penalty was saved by the Sphinx keeper however he slotted the rebound in convincingly putting The Blues one-up with 12 minutes of normal time remaining.

Our lead was doubled just 4 minutes later by Davidson-Miller who had been causing issues for The Sphinx’s back line throughout the afternoon, with The Blues now 0-2 to the good and the 3 points just about secured, Davidson-Miller was replaced by Aaron Cole who joined Garnett at the top of the pitch to see the game out. The final 10 minutes or so saw a handful more chances for The Blues with the final ball or shot being the only thing stopping us from increasing our lead.

The final whistle saw the confirmation of the 3 points & a comfortable win for The Blues in our penultimate game of the season. Our attention now turns to next Saturday, at home, as we look to end the season on a high.

Post game next Saturday we will be hosting our end of season presentation evening in the clubhouse with awards being given for Supporter’s Player, Manager’s Player, Player’s player, Back-room staff’s player & The Chairman’s player of the season.

Please join us for the presentation (and a few drinks), as we celebrate the end of another competitive season playing step 4 football.