Vodkat North West Counties Premier League

Saturday 10th April 2010

Bacup Borough had a late withdrawal for this game when Goal Keeper Paul Horridge who had been having problems previously with his shoulder was diagnosed of having a hair line fracture which will rule the experienced keeper out for the foreseeable future, this is certainly a severe blow to Bacup with thirteen games remaining.

In this game Paul Horridges replacement Steve Dryden failed to show the same demanding and organising presence of the injured keeper, whilst Dryden could not entirely be held responsible for at times Bacup Borough’s woeful defending he most certainly did not help matters by failing to come and deal with balls in and around his six yard box, on six minutes Dryden was picking the ball out of the net from the head of his Captain Davey Luker from a situation that the Goal keeper was better placed to have dealt with the long throw into the box.

On fourteen minutes the visitors had doubled their lead when the ball was allowed to be crossed in too easily from Bacup Boroughs left, the ball was headed away but only as far as Beeston who must have been twenty five yards out, he struck the ball first time that rifled into the far right corner of Drydens goal giving the home keeper absolutely no chance of saving.

On twenty four minutes Bacup had managed to pull a goal back, Lee Oldham was fouled some twenty yards from the Congleton goal, Chris Ogunyode produced a good strike beating Matthew Conkie in the visitors goal,

On thirty eight minutes Bacup Borough’s Lance Ogunyode failed to close down the bears full back who then made the most of not being closed by producing one long straight ball which the central defenders failed to deal with plus the Bacup keeper had made an half hearted attempt to come for the ball, he hesitated but Congletons Rhead did not and deftly chipped the ball over the hesitant keepers head to make it 3-1.

If this was not bad enough it got even worse on the stroke of half time when the Referee decided that Bacup Borough’s Adrian Bellamy was holding Rhead too which a penalty was given and converted making an embarrassing half time score line of 1-4.

On fifty six minutes it was five, the Congleton centre forward held the ball up and also held off Bellamy he then laid the ball off for his advancing full back who was not tracked to then shoot easily into the net.

It was no surprise when changes were made by the Bacup Manager although knowing Brent Peters with his ruthless streak I would have thought any three from six players would have been replaced at the break, Martin Cosgrave and Fabio Abreu were introduced both having an hand in Bacup’s come back.

On sixty two minutes Chris Ogunyode delivered a diagonal ball towards the Congleton penalty area, the Congleton keeper showing a complete disrespect to his advancing opponent, the keeper was first to the ball but Cosgrave did take the ball from him before embarrassing the visiting keeper by shooting into the empty net, one thing for certain had the game been tighter in terms of the score line Conkie would have been blasted through his negligence.

With still plenty of time on the clock for a Bacup comeback this was all put to bed when six minutes later Congleton got their sixth goal by once again shambolic defending, Arran Walters conceded a free kick which was delivered from a wide position, once again it is questionable to where that ball was delivered whether keeper Dryden could have come to help out his defenders, whilst he was rooted to his line as the ball is delivered, defender Phil Prescott almost on the penalty spot did fresh air kick the attempted clearance for substitute Booth to capitalise on the mistake to shoot past Dryden.

Bacup Borough did have the final ending to this game when on eighty five minutes Lance Ogunyode delivered the ball to the far post area where Fabio Abreu was on hand to score his first goal for the club, this was scant consolation when in a game of football so many mistakes were made and punished by a team that are wanting the runners up spot in the league.

At the final whistle Manager Brent Peters had this to say.

"Congratulations to Congleton obviously with a score line like this they were fully deserved winners, it seems capitalising on our ever error, however from a Bacup Borough perspective the attitude of some of my players most certainly need to be seriously looked at, it is bad enough when a team has to carry one player but when at least six players are not at it, then one does get a score line like this.

Attitude plays a massive part in football , sadly currently we have a couple of players that seem to have a serious attitude problem when it comes to seemingly not having the stomach to roll ones sleeves up to at least show that will to want too win a game of football.Players must be prepared to take responsibility, this was an area which was lacking in this game which resulted in conceding goals, the first goal the ball comes in across the six yard box, should the keeper be dealing with this ? I think so, their second goal, when the initial cross in was defended we then fail to put pressure on the ball, by doing so the lad would not score a wonder goal but credit to him for the strike.

Their third goal, we had a lad playing wide right who does not seem to think that he needs to put pressure on a left full back with the ball, this resulted in the lad shaping a long ball in, from here it is beggars belief why one of my centre backs did not come and head the ball away, most worrying also was the fact that our keeper came but did he shout? He then hesitates and gets chipped, the whole package of that goal was primary school errors, Their fourth was a penalty which for me was cheaply given by the official.

Their fifth goal credit to their centre forward by the way he held the ball waiting for a runner to lay off to, however I have to question the lazy attitude of again our wide right player who failed to track the full back who inevitably did the damage by scoring. And finally their sixth goal, a rash challenge for the ball leading to a free kick of which too many free kicks had been given away all afternoon, sometimes one just have to stand their ground and not make rash challenges, by doing so it leads to the situation of their sixth goal when the ball is delivered, the keeper fails to either come and take responsibility or a big shout of away, I saw nor heard either, what I did see was a fresh air kick in the box which was capitalised upon.

Team: Steve Dryden, Phil Prescott. Adrian Bellamy, Barry Massey (Martin Cosgrave), Arran Walters, Chris Ogunyode, (Arran Spencer), Davey Luker, Lee Oldham (Fabio Abreu), Lance Ogunyode, Scott Taylor, Falco Lourenco

Subs Not Used: Thomas Massey

Goals: Ogunyode C 24, Cosgrave 62, Spencer 85

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