Chasetown Colts earned a valuable point on the road, after a gritty determined display at Holly Lane Utd, on a lovely morning for football. Chasetown were only able to field 7 players due to illness and injuries, but in the end this mattered not.

In the first half, Colts started brightly, playing with a good tempo, and forced an early corner, swung in by Thomas Anelli, and in the confusion in the penalty area, Luke Heele kept his cool and steered the ball in to give Chasetown the lead, and for his troubles he sustained an injury, but was able to continue. The game then swung from end to end, both teams trading chances, Kaine Cheshire had good efforts on goal comfortably saved. However, it was Lewis Harvey, who came to the rescue for Town as he made at least three superb saves to keep Lane out, and on the one occasion that he did not get a hand to the ball, Colts were fortunate when he ball hit the underside of the bar and came out again.

In the second half, the home side were in the ascendancy for large parts of the game as they chased an equaliser, but in the main Chasetown's defence held out, ably supported again by Lewis Harvey who made more good stops to deny the hosts, and on one particular occasion where he was one on one with a Holly Lane forward, he narrowed the angle brilliantly to force the shot wide and out of danger. It was inevitable on an unusually warm March morning, that Chasetown players would tire and with about 5 minutes or so remaining they conceded the equaliser to a well worked goal. In the final minutes Chasetown summoned up all their reserves of energy and did break forward on a few occasions but were not able to create any clear cut scoring chances, but it did have the advantage of keeping the home team at bay from a scoring a possible winner.

In summary, this was a hard fought point gained, and considering the circumstances of only having the bare 7 players, they all played with great spirit, and there were certainly some tired lads at the end. The players that stood out for me were Luke Heele who scored a poachers goal and played through the pain barrier towards the end, the midfield lads Brandon Ward and Connor Williams must have ran miles, Lewis Harvey again showed what a fine keeper he is with some great saves which kept us in the game. The star of the day as voted by the supporters, although it was a close run thing, was Thomas Anelli, who had a great game in an unaccustomed position for him in defence.