Dynamo 3-2 Coleshill Town

Kieran King Reports:

Loughborough Dynamo finished their pre-season campaign off with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over same-level Coleshill Town at the ADT Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Goals from Alex Steadman and Evan Garnett cancelled out Daniel Dubidat’s early opener, before Andre Williams added a third for The Moes just after the break. Although Coleshill pulled one back through Barry Fitzharris’ low drive, Dynamo held on to claim a fifth friendly success from eight matches.

Lee Attenborough made four changes from the team which beat Stapenhill a week ago as Alex Steadman, Jack Smith, Tom Oliver and Josh Riley came into the Starting XI for Cavan Holford, Charlie Young, Jay Alexander and Karl Demidh.

Coleshill, who ply their trade in the Southern Premier League Division One Central, began the game the brighter of the two sides and earned themselves a golden opportunity to open the scoring as they won a penalty within three minutes. Dubidat stepped up and converted the spot-kick into the bottom left corner, sending Oliver the wrong way in the meantime.

However, Dynamo responded well to going a goal behind and almost equalised moments later when Garnett drove into the box inside the left channel and past a couple of defenders, but his pull back was cleared away from danger.

It didn’t take long for The Moes to grab a leveller though and they did so on 14 minutes. Steadman was found in space and saw a shot hit the post, but the forward reacted first to nod home the rebound for his first in pre-season.

Attenborough’s men continued to put pressure on the Coleshill back-line and Garnett was at the heart of it with his tireless running and willingness to the stretch the defence. He was rewarded for his hard-work as the forward turned the game on its head mid-way through the first-half when he got on the end of Curtis Burrows’ cross, before finishing neatly into the back of the net.

Garnett could’ve grabbed himself another goal, but he spurned two superb chances before the interval. His first was a one-on-one with the goalkeeper which he curled over the crossbar, before he saw a long-range effort crash off the woodwork, as his side led at half-time.

Dynamo started the second period as they ended the first, on the front foot and with an intent to double their advantage, and they managed to add another goal, just eight minutes after the break. Garnett’s inch-perfect pass found Steadman whose powerful low shot was palmed straight to Williams and he made no mistake, tapping the ball into an empty net.

As the half wore on, Coleshill grew into the contest and went close to pulling a goal back on 57 when Dubidat ran through with just Oliver to beat, but he rolled his effort just inches past the post.

They did, however, half the deficit with a quarter of an hour to play as Fitzharris’ rippling 25-yard strike fizzed through a few bodies before finding corner of the net.

Coleshill pushed to grab a third and had opportunities to do so, but were unable to do so in the latter stages as Dynamo stood firm to secure a well-earned victory on Watermead Lane, which sets them up for next Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup trip to Lutterworth Town.