Bacup Borough edged this game in what was an excellent advert of football for the Vodkat North West Counties League.

Barnoldswick in the first half had a lot of the ball very much in their own half but with Bacup playing a patient disciplined game the visitors were not able to break the home side down very much limiting their chances on goal whilst Bacup relied very much on the counter attack. Again chances for the home side were also limited, one long ball out of defence helped on did set Haydn Paul in on goal but Billy Carrington the Barnoldswick keeper was quickly off his line, then Carrington was once again brought into the action making a diving save from Chris Ogunyode, although chances were limited for both teams the football and commitment and the pace this game was played at did make the first half entertaining despite the lack of goals.

At the start of the second half Barnoldswick won a free kick approximately twenty yards out when new signing Kingsly Williams from Northwich Victoria was harshly penalised and a free kick was awarded but defended well, then following a Bacup attack Barnoldswick sent a long ball which was helped on in behind the Bacup rear guard however Goalkeeper Paul Horridge was quickly off his line spreading himself at the advancing players feet.

Bacup made their first substitution when Martin Cosgrave was introduced replacing Chris Ogunyode, Cosgrave was soon in the action creating problems for the Barnoldswick defence, however it was Bacup’s second substitution Daniel Cocks replacing Haydn Paul that turned out to be the catalyst, almost from his introduction into this game he was creating all sorts of problems in and around the Barnoldswick penalty area, having only been on the pitch seven minutes he produced an excellent finish to separate the two sides, Bacup had just defended a free kick the ball was partly cleared resulting in the ball coming back at Bacup, skipper Davey Luker intercepted the ball before passing up the field to Lance Ogunyode, with his back to goal Lance took the ball in before quickly turning before moving the ball to Cocks who was fouled but Barry Crop the young official played advantage well as Cocks had gained the advantage despite the foul to advance towards goal, once the Barnoldswick keeper made his mind up. Cocks finished well placing the ball past Carrington into the net.

Minutes later Cocks made a mesmerising run forward and into the box but Barnoldswick defended well disposing the lively substitute of the ball, at the opposite end Barnoldswick did force a succession of corners from which Bacup defended, then in the last minute of the game deep into the corner of the Barnoldswick half Liam Garbutt the Barnoldswick player was dismissed for frustratingly throwing the ball at the Bacup player, a sad end to what in the main was two very good sides going toe to toe in a game that was a credit to the League they are competing in.

Following the game I caught up with Manager Brent Peters who had this to say “When we met earlier in the season their team shape caused us some problems. In this game in order to nullify this we changed our shape from the off, this meant squad rotation on the basis of horses for courses such is the respect we have for Barnoldswick. It also meant sitting our best two players from our last game but such is the quality we have within our squad enables us to do this.

Ffor the first fifteen minutes certain individuals for Bacup were getting frustrated amongst themselves due to the good movement of Barnoldswick, this along with a couple of individuals from our side shirking their responsibilities by not being disciplined within our team shape,. However once we got to grips with this situation we played a very good disciplined game which allowed our opponents to have the ball deep in their half whilst we stayed solid as a unit making us difficult to break down.

Peters went on “the goal we scored which Daniel Cocks finished very well a lot of credit also must go to Lance Ogunyode who did brilliant with his back to goal before laying off for Cocksie. Make no mistake this was an excellent all round team performance against a very good Barnoldswick side,

Peters finished by saying “This game was played in an highly competitive manner by both sides but credit must also go to both sides for the manner in which it was played, but also some credit for this must go to the Referee although for me the Barnoldswick player sending off was petty and in that situation the Referee should have managed it better, although that said had their have been an assessor present the official would have been down marked, hence why he gave the lad a red card, for me ban assessors and lets get back to officials using commonsense and managing situations as they see it and not worrying what the assessor will mark them, in this game the lad should not have been sent off as the offence was petty and also it was the final minute of the game, after all this game did not deserve that, both sets of players were a credit to the game"

Team: Paul Horridge, Adrian Bellamy (Robert Fox), Gareth Wager, Marc Taylor, Lee Pugh, Matthew Hampson, Kingsly Williams, Davey Luker, Chris Ogunyode (Martin Cosgrave), Hayden Paul (Daniel Cocks), Lance Ogunyode

Subs Not Used: Matthew Wrigley

Goals: -Cocks 75

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