It was a day of nerves at The Scholars Ground – all of them for visitors Coalville Town.
The Leicestershire side needed to win and hope Belper would win or draw at home to Halesowen Town in order for the Ravens to lift the league title.
The opening few minutes reflected that with the visitors looking keen to make sure they did their bit and they kept Chasetown very much at arm’s length.
The Scholars, understandably, had one eye on the Walsall Senior Cup Final and not getting injured or suspended, but they owed their fans a good send off for the final home game of the season.
News filtered through that Halesowen had taken the lead and not long after Coalville broke the deadlock in this one. The referee awarded what appeared a harsh penalty decision when Grant Beckett tackled Glyn Cotton and Cam Stuart made no mistake from the spot.
Keeper Ryan Price made a great save to deny a Jed Davies header and it was only a matter of time before Coalville increased their lead and never looked likely to surrender it. Six minutes before half-time, Anthony Carney twisted and turned and finished superbly.
Nine minutes after the break it was game over as Callum Woodward made it 3-0 and from then it was only a question of what was happening at Belper.
Jed Davies struck the post, before visiting Ravens fans burst into the first of many choruses of “There’s only one Stephen Sutton” which were richly applauded by the home fans.
Chasetown’s only effort on target all game was a superb Danny Bragoli header kept out well by keeper Sean Bowles but even that was offside and would not have counted.
The scoreline came through that Halesowen were 2-0 up and, barring a dramatic comeback from Belper, the Yeltz were league champions and Coalville rang the changes with three substitutions to protect players for their play-off game on Tuesday night.
From Chasetown’s perspective, the season had ended disappointingly – finishing in 12th place after reaching the play-off finals in their last campaign. But, if Scholars fans had left the ground disappointed with the result and the performance, they were full of praise for Coalville’s visiting support who raised more than £400 for Stephen Sutton and Teenage Cancer Trust, while over £200 was raised for St Anne’s Church in Chasetown via a bucket collection.
Chasetown: Price, Evans (Farmer, 71 mins), Beckett, Slater, Robinson, Halsall, Butler, Bragoli, Wellecomme, Smith (Luckie, 58 mins), Gould (Stephens, 58 mins). Subs not used: Teesdale, Watson.
Coalville Town: Bowles, Kay, Stuart (Jenno, 81 mins), Cotton, McAteer, Saunders, Woodward, Lester, Carney (Hutchinson, 79 mins), Saunders (Hay, 83 mins), Davies. Subs not used: Nadat, Miveld.
