Coventry Sphinx 1-5 Long Eaton United
Five goals for Long Eaton United striker Evan Garnett banked three points for the Blues in a 5-1 win against Coventry Sphinx in the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division.
Sphinx played the second half and the end of the first with ten men after striker Sam Lockley received a straight red card on his debut, while injuries to Kyle Carey and Jamie Draper forced the home team into two unwanted first-half substitutions for the second league game in a row.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas had to rearrange their defence in front of goalkeeper Keelan Fallows, bringing Ryley Nicholson in at right back in place of the suspended Joe Pursey. Jamie Draper moved across to left back and Louis Guest started in the middle with Patrick Zito.
Jack Downes was paired in midfield with captain Callum Woodward. Carey was flanked by Andre Williams on the right and Alex Lock on the left behind debutant Lockley.
The visitors quickly got themselves on the ball and Garnett served notice as early as the third minute, when he drove his first shot of the game well wide.
Sphinx got a foothold but Draper had to react well with nine minutes played to clear the ball off the line after a header from Liam Loughlan hit the post. Long Eaton had delivered the second ball back in after a long throw-in and caused a problem in the box for the home side.
It wasn't one-way traffic early on. Carey tried his luck with an quick shot from distance that forced Blues goalkeeper Lewis King into a low save as Sphinx built up a spell of pressure, but it wasn't long before Long Eaton took the lead.
The home defence was pulled out of shape and the visitors capitalised. Garnett's first effort was blocked upwards and onto the bar by Fallows but the Long Eaton striker was left with the easiest of tasks to knock the ball over the line for 1-0.
Garnett dragged two chances wide in the middle of the first half, the second a golden opportunity. Sphinx made their move, switching the ball from right to left where Carey produced a beauty of a reverse pass for Lock. Only excellent defending kept him out.
Carey didn't see out the half on his return from injury, going down again with half an hour played. Not for the first time, Woodward and Thomas had to make an unwelcome substitution. Jordan Hayward is a proven quantity and had an immediate impact.
A long free kick out of defence was pulled in by Lockley, whose shot on the turn squirmed through to Hayward. The winger picked his spot and found the bottom corner to level the scores with his first touch of the match.
It was a poor half of football but Sphinx had finally played their way into it. Three incidents before the break took them out of it again and gave them a mountain to climb.
First, Draper suffered an injury and had to be withdrawn. Sphinx had a ready-made replacement in Callum Martin but two substitutions in the first half is a bad habit they need to break.
Second, Lockley clashed with Long Eaton defender Gianluca Bucci and earned a straight red card and the three-match ban that will come with it. It wasn't the introduction to life in sky blue and white he'd have wanted.
Finally, after a promising move was started and nearly finished by Lock, Long Eaton retained the lead six minutes into stoppage time when Garnett snaffled his second from close range.
You might think a dive acknowledged by the referee in the build-up would result in a free kick rather than play continuing. You'd be wrong. Quite how there was still enough time for Fallows to have to make another good save before the break is anyone's guess.
Sphinx showed a bit of bottle to keep some possession early in the second half but a cleaner final ball from Long Eaton would have seen them extend their lead, especially with Garnett around.
In the 54th minute, Nicholson managed to dig out a cross to the back post, where Martin won a header that beat King but hit the upright. Two minutes later it was 3-1.
Sphinx's defence made it altogether too easy for the opposition and the ball sat up nicely in the box for Garnett, whose volley to complete his hat-trick was the pick of the bunch and left Fallows with no chance.
The rest of the game was farcical from a Sphinx perspective. Fallows can hold his head high after four more saves that kept the score down but the home team's performance left a lot to be desired otherwise.
Garnett tucked away goal number four on the hour, with Sphinx's Ryley Nicholson on the deck with a head injury having taken an elbow seconds before the goal. Play was allowed to continue again.
The match tailed off with Sphinx well beaten. There was a debut off the bench for striker Tolani Omotola, who opened up a few decent attacks including a shot from fellow substitute Roan Newey that drew the only save King made in the half.
Garnett capped a memorable afternoon with a fifth goal the home team would rather forget, sending Long Eaton back up the M1 with all three points.
As bad days at the office go, this was a stinker from Sphinx almost from start to finish. Going down to ten men, losing more players to injury and getting walloped at home isn't anyone's idea of a good time.
But it is the sort of thing that happens in football every now and again, and the real test is in how you respond next time around. Sphinx will need to do that with three players suspended and many more injured, problems both unfortunate and self-inflicted.
Away games at Quorn and Anstey Nomads will be as robust a test of character as the Midlands Division could throw at them. Going into those few days in the right frame of mind is going to be essential.
Sphinx team
Fallows, Nicholson (Ballinger), Draper (Martin), Downes, Guest, Zito, Williams, Woodward (Omotola), Lockley, Carey (Hayward), Lock (Newey)