With The FA Cup Semi Final being an all Manchester affair several Vodkat North West Counties League clubs were granted earlier kick off times in order to being able to view the live FA Cup game, with Bacup Borough already missing several players with injury, the 1-0pm kick off time at the Barton Stadium meant that the Bacup Manager Brent Peters did lose several other players due to work commitments leaving Bacup with a make shift starting line up and no options on the substitutes bench.

One bonus for the Bacup Manager was the return of Gareth Wager who has been out injured for almost one month his last appearance against Winsford in the challenge cup but sadly the time out certainly told in this game as he was nothing like the player he was prior to his injury.

Bacup started well and were certainly asking early questions of the Winsford defence, first of all Kingsley Williams linked up well with Martin Peters who got an early shot off which was inches wide of the post, then following another attack Daniel Cocks and Martin Peters combined with Peters then aiming to find his strike partner Tommy Turner at the far edge of the box, the ball eluded Turner but had Martin Cosgrave have anticipated he would have certainly have opened the scoring.

With almost Winsford’s first attack on thirteen minutes they had taken the lead but their lead came more from poor defending from Bacup than good play by Winsford although credit must go to the scorer who from nothing produced a good finish, the move started down the Bacup left from where the Bacup left back seemed to make an half hearted challenge that was too easily bypassed, the ball was in the air across the box, the Bacup keeper Paul Horridge did come to deal with the situation but then did nothing only drop back to his line at which point the Winsford striker whilst in a battle with the Bacup centre back managed to get enough on the dropping ball to steer past the Bacup keeper just inside his far post, from this moment on it was typical of your end of season game, the pitch with no grass on it, just a hard rutted surface, the sun was shining but the game itself was a meaningless affair with both sides seeming like they were content with the one nil score line, however such was Bacup Borough’s bad defending that an added bonus for Winsford was they got a second goal without even having to break sweat for,

For some unbeknown reason the Bacup centre back Gareth Wager had allowed himself to be pulled almost into the Winsford right channel alongside his left back Greenhalgh, despite the fact both players were in that area Winsford went past them both just like they were Ghosts from the movie Ghost, with players now free and breaking and a Bacup back line that was as ropey as a rope that had been through a shredder did mean that Laquan Esdaile had to leave his man in order to cut out the danger, the ball was played past Esdaile but had the recovering right back Mark Taylor had done better in clearing the ball which he missed the danger would have been stopped, if this was not bad enough the Bacup right sided player had not got himself back in to help out and Paul Horridge in the Bacup goal did lose his footing whilst checking to change directions, all did contribute towards Winsford being gifted with a simple tap in goal from which any one of two Winsford players could have scored.

Early in the second half Bacup lost the services of striker Tommy Turner who is still not over the injury he sustained weeks ago, he was replaced by Amilcar Jacinto another young excellent prospect from the Second Chance Academy, this young eighteen year old did provide Bacup with some quality balls into the box something which had been missing previously, it was during the introduction of Amilcar Jacinto that Bacup actually started to play and create, the best chance came from a situation where the ball was played forward with both Martin Peters and Martin Cosgrave going for the ball which Cosgrave did get onto, with both players breaking and Cosgrave with the ball was fowled, the ball was collected by Peters so the official played the advantage, with the Winsford keeper advancing off his line, cleverly Peters chipped him but agonisingly unlucky the ball dropped inches the wrong side of the post. This was about as good as it got for either side, neither keeper was brought into the action, Winsford were happy with what they had got, whilst Bacup seemed more intent on the whistle going and getting home for the Derby.

After the game the Bacup Manager pulled no punches when he had this to say “Prior to the game a suggestion from my assistant Andy Hill was to let the players have the responsibility of organising the team, set pieces, warm up etc in order to give them more responsibility, it was our intentions to not even go in at half time, however such was how bad our defensive unit were as a unit In the first half I personally had to break proto call and go in to sort them out,

Peters added “ my Assistant would not go in stating they had got themselves into that mess, let them get themselves out of it, this I could not do because the way certain individuals were defending there would have been a flood of goals conceded,it was total shambolic defending,

Peters added “ Prior to the game I thought having Gareth Wager back would be a bonus, however my main concern Gareth having been out so long, that he would not return to his old habits from which everyone concerned including Gareth had worked so hard to rid him of, it seems the saying of, old habits die hard certainly came to the fore for him on his return in this game and that was disappointing, whilst I am criticising the back four as a unit some sympathy must be expressed to Laquan Esdaile who was left exposed on too many occasions, our full backs also need to look at themselves for what I describe as lazy defending by not getting into a position in order to cover but also our wide players have also to take some responsibility for not covering the full backs, this was evident on Winsfords second goal, whilst our right back was there covering Laquan who had to cover Gareth, then I have to question our right sided player for not being in assisting our right back, had this have happened that goal would have been prevented,

Peters finished by saying “ It may be the final weeks of an hard season but that is of no excuse, players must think about personal pride, some of these young lads are trying to get back where they have come from, a football league arena, equally some lads have not been so lucky to have even been there but would like to get there, well this being the case, Face book, girls, pictures and café bars on a Friday night are not good enough preparations for Bacup Borough, never mind trying to achieve a career out of the game “

Team: Paul Horridge, Adrian Bellamy, Laquan Esdaile, Gareth Wager, Josh Greenhalgh, Martin Cosgrave, Marc Taylor, Kingsley Williams, Daniel Cocks Tommy Turner (Amilcar Jacinto), Martin Peters

Subs Not Used: Matthew Wrigley (GK)

Goals: -

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