Following Bacup Borough’s excellent Pre –Season of not conceding a goal, in this, the opening fixture of the season it took newly promoted Stone Dominoes all of three minutes to open the scoring, despite this set back the visitors from a nervy start did get themselves back into a winning position only for the self destruct button to be implemented by the one player one would not expect, skipper Davey Luker.

Stone won a free kick on only the third minute of the game some thirty five yards out in their left hand channel, the ball was delivered and was flicked on to the far post area where Drummond latched onto the loose ball to drive the home side into the lead.

Bacup had started nervous and did not settle until a quarter of the way into the half, once they had settled and started to be composed on the ball it always looked like Bacup would be the team to take the initiative, several chances started to be created with Danny Hartley delivering quality from wide positions one of which almost resulted in an own goal but a corner was won following a good intelligent ball from Josh lynch, then Hartley was close with an overhead kick which did shave the top of the cross bar.

Bacup were forced into an early change when Luke Hargreaves had taken a nasty challenge, Luke was replaced with Ashley Higgins who was soon involved in the action and did have an hand in the equalising goal, Higgins spotted Lance Ogunyode pulling off the Stone rearguard, he put the ball into his path from which Ogunyode produced a quality finish.

At times Bacup were guilty of giving away needless free kicks in situation’s when it was not on to go and win the ball, patience would have been the best option, it was from these free kicks that Bacup were putting themselves under needless pressure as this apart Stone were not causing Bacup too much concern, it was the visitors that were creating several opportunities with Lee Oldham and Josh Lynch being the provider for Lance Ogunyode who’s effort was just over the bar, then the same player had a goal line clearance following good work from Hartley from which the goal line clearance should have been finished by Lee Oldham who opted to chip the ball which again was cleared for a corner, this resulted in another half chance but the ball got stuck under Lance Ogunyodies feet,

The second half got underway and almost from the off Lance Ogunyode should have put Bacup in front, Bacup won a free kick the ball found Ogunyode in an excellent position in space but inexplicably he took his eyes off the ball and let the ball go out of play for a goal kick.

Josh Lynch struck the ball over the bar with a shot from the edge of the box, however on fifty five minutes Bacup got the lead their play most certainly deserved, Bacup won a free kick when Daniel Cocks was fouled, the same player took the free kick which completely deceived the home side keeper into the net.

Bacup with a lead intact were in control and did not look like conceding, this until the Bacup skipper attempting to take up a position in the Bacup penalty area did find himself getting involved with a Stone player off the ball, unusually the Bacup skipper saw red mist and in an off the ball incident Luker pushed his counterpart to the floor right in front of the referee, Davey Luker was booked and a cheap penalty awarded which was converted by Matthews, Stone had now found themselves back in a game that the first fifteen minutes apart they were never in, however despite this set back Bacup still had enough chances to have secured the three points when Daniel Cock’s free kick was punched away by the Stone keeper and then the best chance of the whole game following a Stone corner from which we broke away into a three v one situation from which Lance Ogunyode squared the ball to Chris Ogunyode who did take one touch too many and in doing so let an excellent opportunity spurn which in the eighty seventh minute turned out to have far more reaching consequences when Stone Dominoes grabbed the winner, this came following a free kick on the bacup right some twenty five yards out, the ball was delivered but Adrian Bellamy got a weak header onto the ball that went nowhere only upwards, the Bacup keeper Jon Paul Lewis had chance to come and take the ball but failed and from this when the ball did drop Stone Dominoes Charlton in space shaped his shot into the far corner of the net, time had ran out there was no coming back from this but a mixture of Red Mist and not taking the chances when they did come proved to be the Bacup downfall in this opening fixture.

Following the match I spoke to Manager Brent Peters who had this to say.

Whilst I am disappointed with the fact we have come away from this game with nothing what did unfold may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, by this I am referring to the Red Mist and at times our indiscipline, in our recent team meetings I have been making the point that we have excellent players with superb quality, it was pointed out that over the season we must ensure we do not get caught up in situations like we did in this game, bookings lead to suspensions, sending offs lead to suspensions so to this end if we are wanting to aspire to be one of the challenging sides it is important we have our quality of player available at all times, peters added what happened in this game with our Captain just proves my point, had he have not got himself involved and would have kept his discipline we most certainly would have won this game, that penalty gave them a lifeline which they took and then one piece of bad defending granted them the opportunity to steal the winner, the ironic part about it all, what Davey did is totally out of Character, the most annoying part about it, the lad to whom he got himself involved with, is in my opinion not fit to be gracing the same pitch as such a quality player as Davey Luker, however in a moment of madness Davey did stoop to the lads level, something he regrets and will learn from, hopefully the rest of his team mates will also, this said had we have taken all our chances, we had enough to still have won the game “

Team: Jon Paul Lewis, Gareth Wager, John Luker, Adrian Bellamy, Daniel Cocks, Luke Hargreaves (Ashley Higgins), Josh Lynch, Davey Luker, Daniel Hartley (Martin Cosgrave), Lee Oldham (Chris Ogunyode), Lance Ogunyode

Subs Not Used: Robert Fox, Johnathon Lomas

Goals: Lance Ogunyode 31, Daniel Cocks 51

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