Vodkat North West Counties Premier League

Wednesday 21st April 2010

Atherton Laburnum Rovers came away from the Brian Boys Stadium with a valuable point which could be the point which proves to secure their Premiership status, it was one point that Atherton never looked they would get, but for Goal Keeper Paul Horridge letting the ball slip from his grasp from which former Bacup player Jon Stephenson capitalised upon, Bacup would and should have had the three points in the bag.

Bacup took the lead on forty minutes when Barry Massey who was Captain for this game due to the absence of injured Davey Luker did play the ball to Phil Prescott who made a very good run from full back position before getting to the bye line at the opposite end of the pitch, he cut inside then drilled the ball across the face of goal where Lee Oldham tapped the ball into the net.

Atherton to their credit worked hard through out the game in their quest for survival, in the end their hard work paid off when they managed an equalising goal through Jon Stephenson in the seventy third minute, this came when first of all Bacup player Lee Kershaw had chance to knock the ball into the channel for Lance Ogunyode but instead opted for a little five yard pass that was cut out, Bacup won back possession, played the ball up to Falco Lourenco who failed to take care of the ball which was knocked long, Paul Horridge the Bacup keeper did everything right, he was quickly out to the ball but inexplicably he let the ball out of his body for Jon Stephenson to capitalise on his error to put the ball into the net.

This goal was a set back for Bacup because they looked so assured and compact at the back, the fact that this happened it did give Atherton a lift to which they almost snatched the winner when defender Adrian Bellamy seemed to go too sleep from which his marker was in on goal un challenged but Paul Horridge did make an excellent stop to deny the striker, almost at the end of the game Atherton won a couple of corners and free kicks which was delivered into the box putting the Bacup defence and Goal Keeper Paul Horridge under pressure but to no avail.

At the conclusion of the game whilst the players stayed on the pitch stretching off with Andy Hill, I took the time to speak to Manager Brent Peters who had this to say

" The lads are in the middle of a marathon with the amount of games they have to come and have just completed in a short space of time so to that end I cannot complain about their endeavour and commitment they are giving for the cause, however I am extremely disappointed that we gifted Atherton their goal, do not get me wrong Atherton worked very hard all of the game but I just could not see them scoring at all as we looked composed as a unit at the back, what we can’t legislate for is human error by Paul Horridge but that apart had players further up the pitch done the right thing like Falco taking more care of the ball and had Lee Kershaw have played a channel ball instead of a short nothing ball, then Paul Horridge would not have been put into the position he was put into, despite the fact he let the ball slip, shortly after he quickly saved a certain goal by bravely diving at a players feet after Adrian Bellamy seemed to switch off.

The game in its entirety was a battle but I would not expect anything less when a team like Atherton are fighting for Premiership status, credit to them for quickly closing our players down in order to restrict us from building good moves which would have opened our visitors up, on the occasions we did get the ball up to our front lads they failed to protect the ball, again restricting us of getting any fluency going in our game in order to create openings.

The goal we scored came from a good run from Phil Prescott, it was that good with an end product that it was easy for Lee Oldham, whilst Lee scored Phil Prescott deserves a whole lot of credit, that goal should have been enough, it proved not to be but at least we have taken a creditable 12points from a possible 15, credit to the boys for achieving this. “

Team: Paul Horride, Phil Prescott, Adrian Bellamy, Barry Massey, Josh Greenhalgh, Martin Cosgrave, Lee Oldham, Lee Kershaw, Lance Ogunyode, Chris Ogunyode (Danny Holmes), Falco Lourenco (Arran Spencer)

Subs Not Used: Martin Peters, Steve Dryden

Goals: Lee Oldham 40

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