Vodkat North West Counties Premier League

Saturday 25th October 2008

It seems it is becoming an habit for Bacup Borough of failing to start the game well, for the second week running conceding early goals leading them to chasing the game. Unlike previously there was no way back, Runcorn were allowed to capitalise on an indifferent start taking a three goal first half advantage which proved to be a gift to far.

In any football standards Runcorn’s first goal coming on four minutes and their second goal coming on twenty three minutes were down to terrible defending due to what seemed like miss understanding & indecisiveness between goal keeper Phil Melville & his defenders.

On four minutes a deep long cross over the Bacup six yard box seemed an easy take for Melville who seemed to instruct his defender Marley that it was the keepers ball but failed to come, with Marley not reacting Runcorn’s Morrison reacted to shoot past the stranded keeper. Runcorn’s second goal was a repetition of their first but this time keeper Melville caused indecisiveness with his Captain Davey Luker, this time gifting striker Courtney to produce an easy finish. In terms of defending both goals were poor to say the least and from this moment on through out the first half it could be described like a boxing match when the boxer has just delivered a quality punch, this is then followed with several continual punches for the knock out. Steve Wilkes men did just that with several attacks which could so easily have made an already bad start for Bacup into an embarrassing score line. Phil Melville redeemed himself by pulling off a save from Nehru Mckenzie, however there was nothing he could do when Michael Young got the better of Matthew Cross before shaping a top strike well out of the reach of Melville on thirty four minutes. Further efforts did came the Linnets way but luckily for Borough former Bacup player Stuart Telfer missed a gilt edged opportunity following a blind side run into the box.

Following the half time break Manager Brent Peters predicted a game of two halves declaring his team would come back from a terrible first half performance, well there was no doubting that the home side gave it a good go with them camping for long periods in the Runcorn half of the pitch. However following a rare Linnet’s second half attack on fifty six minutes Bacup’s Sean Roscoe gave away a free kick some twenty five yards outside the Bacup penalty area, the shot was struck but the ball bounced off Melville for Robbin Moore to follow up the rebound. Despite going four goals down Bacup still put in a spirited fight back and on fifty seven minutes following good work by Giggs who provided Collier with a perfect pass to finish well giving the Bacup followers a glimmer of hope. Runcorn were now being pushed back having no other opportunity but to defend deep, on seventy six minutes Bacup pulled another goal back following good work with Giggs and Cosgrave who both had shots at Rob Holcroft in the Runcorn goal and leading scorer Tommy Turner reacted shooting the ball into the net and adding another goal to his tally. At the opposite end of the field Runcorn’s Young took on Davey Luker and got the better of the Bacup skipper before striking the ball across Melville but agonisingly the ball rebounded back off the inside of the far post for Melville to take. Then a long kick up field from the keeper fpund Giggs who showed his silky skills on a glue pot of a pitch before striking goal bound which Rob Holcroft stopped from going in with his legs.

Despite the second half surge from Bacup, the terrible start and the three goal half time advantage to the visitors proved too much for the home side to pull back.

Following the game Manager Brent Peters had this to say “First of all I congratulate Runcorn as this is the second game we have had with them in a matter of weeks and they have struck four goals in each game to produce two comfortable wins. However without taking anything away from their overhaul team performance especially in the first forty five minutes I have to say that from our point of view three of their four goals were very poor on our part. I have to question my keeper and my markers at the back as both their strikers scored but their third goal was top drawer. In the second half we scored two goals, we made Rob Holcroft their keeper work which was not achieved in the first half. I did say that this game would be a game of two halves at half time and I was right whilst we lost the first half three-nil we won the second half 2-1 but due to the inefficiencies of our defending in the first half this did cost us the overhaul result and points”

Team: Phil Melville, Davey Luker, Steve Sheils, Ryan Marley (Sean Roscoe), Matthew Cross, Warren Collier, Matthew Hampson (John Borg), Kyle Harrop, Jamie Rother (Martin Cosgrave), Tommy Turner, Rhodri Giggs

Subs Not Used: Matthew Andrew, Lee Ellis

Goals: Warren Collier 56, Tommy Turner 75

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