Coventry Sphinx 1-1 Anstey Nomads
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx ended the season with a home draw against promotion-chasing Anstey Nomads, drawing 1-1 in the final game of the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division campaign.
Iddriss Fuseini scored to equalise shortly after the Nomads took the lead on a day when Jamie Draper wore the captain's armband in his 150th appearance for the Sphinx first team.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas named an unchanged eleven with Draper, Patrick Zito and Ryley Nicholson at the back in front of goalkeeper Charlie Woods.
Joe Pursey and Jordan Hayward played wide outside midfielders Iddriss Fuseini and Jac Redhead, with Kyle Carey operating off Harvey Smith and Harry Wakefield up front.
Nomads goalkeeper Jude Kinch was the first to have to make a save. Hayward sprung the offside trap on Sphinx’s left and Kinch was out quickly to block the wing back off before he could get a shot away.
The home team were creating some good openings early on and Carey beat an opponent in a similar position with six minutes played and tried a shot from a narrow angle, but could only screw it wide.
It seemed for a while that there was little chance of a football match breaking out but Josh Burniston drilled a shot on target in the 20th minute that forced Sphinx goalkeeper Woods into an unorthodox save.
Hayward was aggressive on the left and went past a man in the middle of the half to hit the byline and knock the ball across goal. Carey, under pressure from a couple of Nomads defenders, tried to find a way to turn it in but the ball was slightly behind him and drifted wide of the post.
The home team were frustrated to concede soon after that chance. A pass across the face of goal from the Nomads left took Woods out of the game and left Rhys Dolan with a simple finish into the roof of the net.
It was in keeping with the balance of the game that Sphinx only had to wait ten minutes for the equaliser. Causing problems again down the left, they got into a great position thanks to a reverse pass from Carey to Redhead.
The midfielder cut in and curled a shot beyond Kinch only to watch it come back off the post. Fuseini was first to the rebound, burying the ball into the bottom corner with a first-time shot to make it 1-1.
As the game opened up, the shots started to flow before half time. Anstey saw an extremely ambitious attempted lob sail miles over the crossbar before James Snedden fired over from the edge of the box.
Sphinx scorer Fuseini had the last meaningful attempt of the first period, curling wide with a left-footed shot after the Nomads turned the ball over in their defensive third.
The visitors had the first couple of chances in a second half that did little to get pulses racing at the end of the season, Woods saving the first at his near post and then leaving a shot from distance to miss high and wide.
Sphinx enjoyed a spell in the ascendancy in the middle of the half but only really had one serious chance to show for it in a game of few penalty box incidents.
The Nomads finished stronger of the two sides but Carey’s turn in the box and subsequent shot that rolled just wide was the closest either team came to a winning goal.
After consecutive away wins, Sphinx ended the season with a solid point at home against a team still in the promotion hunt.
They have achieved the club's highest ever league finish and secured a third season in the fourth tier after promotion in 2022/23.
Sphinx team
Woods, Draper, Hayward (Newey), Fuseini (Maphosa), Zito, Nicholson, Pursey, Redhead (Woodward), Wakefield (Blowers), Carey, Smith (Shearer)