If ever a team went from hero’s to zeros in the space of one game, then this was the team, the entire same team which did go toe to toe with their previous opponents to earn plenty of accolades, for all the bouquets that did come their way then and deservedly so, then in this game the entire team with the exception of the goal keeper should be hanging their heads in shame as they all were a total collective embarrassment to their Management team that have stood by them all with exemplary comments and also the Bacup supporters that had made the trip to Bootle.

It was not as though Bootle were a good side and Bacup had more than met their match, the difference between the two sides were the home side got amongst Bacup, pressing and harassing, working hard to retrieve second balls, from this they had nothing other than a direct approach that had Bacup not have produced the self destruct button, then I certainly could not see the home side scoring, equally I also could not see the visitors scoring, the difference being Bootle were in no mood to be generous whilst Bacup were guilty of conducting themselves in a way which did lead to the goals that one would only see from juniors in their first few years of kicking a ball, the goals were laughable to say the least.

The Bottle opening goal came from ironic a good move from Bacup which the final pass did come to nothing due to Lee Oldham who constantly was offside, quickly Bootle took their free kick playing a long diagonal ball to Black who had worked hard up and down all afternoon got onto the ball completely unopposed before knocking the ball in behind the Bacup defence before chipping the ball over the Bacup keeper this goal came on 28minutes, from this moment on there was nothing but frustration for the Bacup Management team and sufferance to the Bacup travelling contingent as Bacup constantly gave the ball away, from this they were slow to react to winning the second ball back, when the ball did get upfront the two Bacup strikers of Ogunyode and Lee Oldham could not take care of the ball which did not help Bacup’s cause in buying time to allow the midfield to come on to support them.

With the score line at 1-0 down at the half time break there was a glimmer of hope from the Bacup faithful that the second half performance would have offered a lot more once Manager Brent Peters and Head of Player Development Andy Hill did have their say, this may well have been the case had centre back John Luker not stupidly have put his hand up in the air to handle the ball away so blatant to give the opposition a penalty, but what he was doing only John Luker will know, it was self destruct and with only seven minutes into the half any positive or reassuring words from the Management team at the break had gone as it was game over when on fifty two minutes Mark Kilroy converted the penalty making the score line 2-0.

Bacup put their own final nail in their coffin on seventy two minutes when Gareth Wager produced another schoolboy error by playing a blind pass back to his goal keeper from all of thirty five yards out, Wager received the ball in the wide right channel before crazily attempting to play back to his keeper which one of Bootle substitutes James Robinson latched onto for an easy self destruct goal.

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

“I take nothing back from the comments I have made about this group of players, I still believe they are collectively the best we have had for a few seasons but now is another test for them, a test of character because there is absolutely no chance of me accepting what I have witnessed today.

Bootle were bright, they were hungry and they worked extremely hard without having an abundance of quality within their ranks but it is no use as in our case having quality if first and foremost we as a group are first of all not going to go too battle with our opponents, you can have all the skill in the world but if your opponents work hard as Bootle did to prevent you producing or showing your ability then one gets what we got today- nothing, this said had we not have inflicted our own downfall which did gift the opposition two goals and in some respects even their opening goal, then how bad we were, we would have still got something from this debacle.

Peters added “Their opening goal Lee Oldham is caught off side which is happening too many times, instead of the team quickly retreating into our shape we are too busy reacting to officials that are never going to change their mind, by doing this Lee Oldham fails to prevent the kick being taken quickly, Daniel Cocks fails to track the lad Kevin Black who did work hard up and down all afternoon. Black gets on the ball unopposed, our spare man at the back Rob Fox does neither go to the ball to close or more importantly drop off, had he have dropped off the lad would not have been able to knock into the space behind before chipping our keeper, a total team indiscipline,

Peters added following the half time rocket we did start the half a lot brighter, better and positive but when only twelve minutes into the half big John Luker sticks his hand up in the air for a blatant on purpose hand ball from which a penalty was given, then what chance have we? It was ludicrous and from a former club captain totally unacceptable, talk about knocking the stuffing out you, and then if that was not bad enough another former club captain Gareth Wager does deliver an attempted back pass blind from all of ten yards into our half from which Bootle were gifted their third goal, these two players are senior players that should be leading by example, playing too percentages and not making downright bad decisions,

Peters finished by saying “ apart from our keeper every single player have placed their position into jeopardy ahead of Wednesday, I will take stock following Monday’s training where hopefully Luke Hargreaves and Josh Lynch will be back from injury to add to the competition for a starting line up “

Team: Jon Paul Lewis, Gareth Wager, John Luker, Robert Fox, Daniel Cocks, Davey Luker, Adrian Bellamy, Chris Ogunyode (Ashley Higgins), Daniel Hartley (Arran Spencer), Lee Oldham (Martin Cosgrave), Lance Ogunyode.

Subs Not Used: James Greenhalgh, Tommy Allen.

Goals: -

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