Bacup Borough earned themselves an home FA Cup Tie with Clitheroe following this three goal win at Flixton.

In the first forty five minutes the home side were being ripped apart with Bacup Borough’s creative football, as early as the third minute Bacup Borough’s Johnny Lomas struck the Flixton upright with a spectacular over head kick following a free kick which had been awarded for a foul on Lee Oldham.

On nine minutes Bacup had broken the deadlock, this came following a good move involving Davey Luker, Jonny Lomas before Chris Ogunyode combined with Daniel Cocks who reversed pass to Chris Ogunyode to produce a clinical finish.

From this opening goal Bacup were creating chances at will, an excellent ball from defender Robert Fox got Lee Oldham in onto goal, Lee did everything right shooting across the Flixton keeper who could only push the ball away from goal but surprisingly the Bacup Striker Lance Ogunyode had not taken up the correct position to tap the ball into the net leaving another chance go begging.

Another excellent opportunity came Bacup Borough’s way when the ball was delivered from the right with quality, Alan Shearer in his day who graced the number nine shirt would have provided the finishing touch into goal with his head that such a good cross deserved, for some reason the Bacup striker wearing the nine shirt Lee Oldham went for the ball with an outstretched leg, whilst connecting with the ball there was nothing on it giving the keeper the chance to get an hand to the ball when what seemed a glorious opportunity for Lee Oldham to have scored had he have gone with his head.

Bacup got another good break mounted following a clash between Chris Gounod and a Flexion player, with both players on the floor injured Bacup still had possession and in a good position to have created an opportunity to have doubled their lead, however the young Bacup side showed some naivety by stopping play and kicking the ball out of play in order that both players could receive treatment, needless to say when play re started Flixton did throw the ball as far into the corner as possible which Bacup had lost all that ground advantage.

Having seen three games now of Bacup Borough’s I am finding it hard to understand where the FA are getting these officials from, here once again we witness an official refusing to make the brave decisions of awarding what was a stone wall penalty but would not do so due to having to send off the Flixton keeper, this incident came about when a defence splitting ball Bacup Borough’s Lee Oldham did get onto the end of, Lee drove into the penalty area, the keeper came racing to close him down, Lee knocked the ball round him when he was tripped, the player tried to stay on his feet but eventually stumbled over, the Referee just allowed play to go on, this was a poor decision to say the least.

On thirty five minutes Bacup had doubled their lead, Lee Oldham had been fouled and a free kick was awarded just off centre of goal, Chris Ogunyode some twenty yards out first of all struck the wall with his initial shot, as the ball did come back to him, this time Chris Ogunyode made no mistake firing his shot into the net.

During this forty five minutes it was all Bacup, Flixton just were not in the game, however the same could not be said about them at the start of the second half, as you would expect after the break, Flixton came out and took the game to Bacup forcing the first corner of the half, a defender made a late run towards the taker to whom we did not deal with the ball was driven through the crowded area to the back post but thankfully for Bacup Flixton had not had a man pulling off into that area or had there have been, a goal would have been a probability, Minutes later Flixton did have the ball in the net but it was ruled out for off side.

Bacup did not start this second half at all well, this forced Bacup into making changes, the first change came when after Lee Oldham failed to protect the ball better when the ball had been played into him but it bounced off him and Flixton retrieved the ball back again, Lee Oldham was then replaced with Martin Cosgrave, following this substitution Bacup Borough’s first effort of the half came from a long range Chris Ogunyode effort which the keeper tipped over for a corner, from the corner it was Chris Ogunyode who’s shot was blocked. Bacup Borough made another change with Daniel Cocks being replaced with Ashley Higgins.

On seventy seven minutes Bacup increased their lead, a quality delivery from Danny Hartley was attacked by Lance Ogunyode who got ahead of the keeper to finish at the second attempt, just after this goal the tireless Danny Hartley was replaced with Kerim Allan, no further goals did come but Bacup Borough will have been happy to be progressing in this FA Cup competition.

Whilst the Players were doing their warm down I caught up with Manager Brent Peters who had this to say.

“This group of lads are probably the best we have had as a collective unit for a few seasons, however myself, Andy Hill & Jimmy Petruzi demand high standards and constant concentration levels in their all round game, with us being two goals up at the break I think it was a culture shock to some of them when we are having a go at them during the half time break, the reason for this we did really well opening up Flixton but through players either making wrong decisions in and around the goals, not taking up the correct position’s we did miss three times as many glorious chances as we did score,

Peters added “ players have got to realise the three of us have vast experience, we know what can happen in the second forty five minutes if we do not kill teams off, our points of view could easily have been proved, at the start of the second half Flixton had two excellent opportunities just after the break which another day if they did go in it would have been game on, the way we dominated the first forty five minutes to create the chances we did, had this have happened it would have been a major disaster, hence the reason the lads were brought back down to earth at the break by us,

Peters added on a positive note Keeper John Paul Lewis obviously did take our constructive comments on board from our previous game to respond excellent, Chris Ogunyode showed a good attitude and responded with two good goals, it was a pleasing result with plenty of positives, the negatives the lads will have to learn and learn quickly, that any Negatives will be addressed as constructive criticism, if they take these on board, listen and learn, then equally the individuals in question will become better players and Bacup Borough will become a lot better team, scoring three goals away from home and keeping a clean sheet by not conceding is pleasing indeed”

Team: John Paul Lewis, Gareth Wager, John Luker, Robert Fox, Daniel Cocks, (Ashley Higgins), Davey Luker, Johnny Lomas, Daniel Hartley, (Kerim Allan), Lee Oldham (Martin Cosgrave), Lance Ogunyode, Chris Ogunyode.

Subs Not Used: Adrian Bellamy, James Greenhalgh

Goals: Chris Ogunyode 8, 35; Lance Ogunyode 75

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