For several games now the Bacup Management Team have made it a well documented concern that pro rata of chances created the strike force have not been turning those chances into goals, this did prompt them to pair the youngest strike force of Hayden Paul ( 18) and Fabio Abreu ( 17) together but what a formidable partnership this could turn out to be, with only one minute on the clock, defender Chris Middleton played the ball into midfield where Kingsly Williams who is on a one month loan from Northwich Victoria helped the ball onto Fabio Abreu who cleverly headed the ball into the path of his young strike partner who then took the ball in his stride before finishing with typical strikers instinctive finishing qualities, three minutes later it was two when this time Captain Davey Luker did play an intelligent defence splitting ball which Haydn Paul latched onto and once again he showed his finishing instincts by producing another excellent finish.

This start put the home side in dominant mood and were not letting the Battling qualities of Bootle anywhere near the bacup players who were utilising the space on the bacup pitch well, however what seems to be normal for Bacup they tend to easily let the opposition back into the game from a position of total command, on nineteen minutes two Bacup Borough players both were out jumped in the winning of header stakes which then resulted in Marc Taylor making a ridiculous diving in challenge, when had the player have stayed on his feet it would have still left the player with a lot to do to work an opening to score, the late stupid challenge left Marc Taylor with a yellow card and a penalty for the opposition, a real get out of Jail card, up stepped Ronald Morgan who did pull the deficit back for Bootle.

Minutes later with the ball in the Bootle’s defending third Lance Ogunyode did fail to challenge the Bootle left back by not doing so did give the lad a chance to go route one which almost undeservedly got them into a goal scoring situation, then Goalkeeper Paul Horridge almost pulled the self destruct when he failed to deal with a ball into his hands which Bacup did manage to clear.

With this penalty giving Bootle a lifeline they constantly went direct at every opportunity in the hope of getting an equaliser and by doing so preventing Bacup getting on the ball in the middle of the park reducing their dominance,

Bootle won a corner which Lance Ogunyode was positioned on the post did clear, whilst at the opposite end Bacup did win a free kick but Luke Hargreaves could not repeat his quality of the last game by this time hitting the wall and when the ball rebounded back to him, he slipped giving Bootle a great opportunity but the player in question shot over, the final kick of the half was another Bacup Free Kick which Luke Hargreaves again did take but this time the keeper tipped the ball over for a corner which was defended with Bacup going in at the break 2-1 to the good.

At the break Bacup made a change bringing on Martin Cosgrave for Luke Hargreaves, Cosgrave was soon in the action linking with Davey Luker and Kingsly Williams who shot just wide.

With Bootle constantly going long and Battling for every ball the football was very rare but Bacup did manage to play their slick passing at isolated times when once again Bacup made another reshuffle taking off the poor Adrian Bellamy to be replaced by Johnny Lomas who also was soon in the action when Fabio Abreu had done well holding the ball up before releasing Lomas who most certainly have made it three but poorly shot wide of the target.

It looked like Bacup had done enough to have secured the three points but yet again the Match Referee Ian Johnson who was extremely poor for both sides did suddenly find an extra five minutes stoppage time, however it was not as much the stoppage time but the fact that he blatantly did fail to give Bacup a free kick when Lance Ogunyode was physically assaulted from the ball to astonishingly get waived play on, this eventually did lead to Bootle getting a free kick in a right hand side position which was obviously going to be their last chance of salvaging anything, with everyone forward the ball was delivered into a crowded penalty area.

Bacup desperately trying to clear the danger but somehow the ball found Ronald Morgan who had taken up a position on the blind side of everyone and beyond the far post, with the game well into stoppage time he knew he had to be precise and precise he was much to the frustration of the Bacup team that most certainly did not deserve this cruel ending, the players did gather around Referee Johnston wanting to know why the free kick was not given against Lance Ogunyode but to no avail and the goal stood.

With reference to the game Peters commented,

“When you get members of the Bootle Management team and Playing staff shaking your hand at the end of the game and admitting Bacup did not deserve that does say it all. Both myself and Andy Hill were excitingly confident that the young striking partnership of Haydn Paul and Fabio Abreu would be the answer, our only worry was if they could cope with the physical aspect of the game. Without being disrespectful to Bootle if ever the re was an opposition to test this against this was it. Both came through with flying colours with Haydn Paul scoring a brace and Fabio playing a huge part. Another young player in Kingsly Williams complimented his captain Davey Luker well and deserved his man of the match vote by the opponents.

Peters went on “In the main a lot of positives came out of this game with some excellent first half football, my concern again was the rash defending which resulted in gifting Bootle a get out of jail card from the penalty spot, why defenders dive in his beggars belief, once Bootle got this lifeline they for the entirety of the game did go direct turning the game into an attack v defence battle, this we had stood up to for ninety four minutes and had the official have blown at the correct time it would have been a fully deserved good three points, however for at least the third game this season we have lost a winning position well into injury time from set pieces, something that is extremely poor to say the least, that is the difference of three points rather than having the deserved nine points, with regard to Bootle one must give them credit as they are another side that never stop working and will always keep going, at 2-1 had Johnny Lomas had finished his chance which he should have done, no matter how hard the opposition did work there would not have been yet another get out of jail card served and yet again points dropped from a winning position “

Team: Paul Horridge, Chris Middleton, Gareth Wager, Marc Taylor, Adrian Bellamy (Johnny Lomas), Luke Hargreaves (Martin Cosgrave), Kingsly Williams, Davey Luker, Lance Ogunyode, Hayden Paul, Fabio Abreu

Subs Not Used: Falco Lourenco Steve Dryden (GK), Daniel Cocks

Goals: Hayden Paul 1, 4

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