Bacup Borough made further progress in their second cup match in as many weeks, still without the services of Adrian Bellamy and also Matthew Hampson, sidelined for this game following an injury but back after recovering from injury was the Bacup Captain Davey Luker.

Bacup in a good rich vein of form were also meeting a team in Collieries that themselves were also having a good run of results, once the game got underway from the kick off Bacup soon realizes they were never going to find this game easy when almost in the second minute a lazy sloppy pass from Kingsley Williams afforded Collieries possession from which the Bacup goal keeper Max Johnson was full stretch making a good save to give the Bacup host their first corner of the afternoon which was defended, from this Bacup stepped up to the task and with less than ten minutes on the clock they had got themselves in front, the goal came following some good play from Gareth Wager with some good hold up play by Tommy Turner before finding Daniel Cocks who produced an excellent finish with a shot across the Collieries keeper with shape into the net.

This goal seemed to make the home side even more determined with Paul Shanley causing Bacup Borough and in particular Lee Oldham surmounting problems especially when first of all Max Johnson made a save from him and shortly following the same player free in front of goal shot over the bar, at this point the Bacup Manager Brent Peters was forced into making some positional player adjustments in order to nullify his threat, Bacup had chance to have doubled their lead when Daniel Cocks put Tommy Turner through with a good first time pass, the Bacup striker waited for the keeper to make his move before shooting but unluckily the ball rebounded off the advancing keeper into Turner to run out of play for a goal kick, this was to be Tommy Turners last contribution in the game when he had to leave the pitch with an ankle injury, replacing Tommy was Martin Cosgrave, shortly following Bacup’s Gareth Wager was told to leave the pitch due to having a wrist band on in memory of a Soldier killed in Afghanistan, for three minutes Bacup were down to ten men and in this short period Atherton Collieries almost made Bacup and in particular Gareth Wager pay, some desperate defending kept Bacup’s slender lead intact.

Right on the stroke of half time Bacup won a free kick at the edge of the Atherton penalty box, Daniel Cocks failed to use Kingsley Williams who had pulled off wide in order to shoot for goal which Lee Novak in the Atherton goal was equal too.

The Second Half got underway with Bacup defending the slope, Bacup started positive with the impressive Arran Walters winning possession before positively going for goal and shooting from which Novak needed two attempts in order to gather the ball cleanly.

On fifty five minutes Bacup lost the services of their other striker Haydn Paul through injury which brought into the action Alex Ralph who once again following on from his introduction last week did create some threatening moves and looks very much a good addition to the squad.

Bacup got their second goal following a good move up the left channel of the pitch, Arran Walters kept the ball alive into the area from which aerial challenges took place, once the ball dropped Lee Oldham was on it to produce an excellent strike giving Lee Novak no chance in the Atherton goal.

Further chances came Bacup Borough’s way when following a Bacup free kick Novak failed to take cleanly, the alert Martin Cosgrave was onto it but jumped over the ball and on another occasion the ball broke to Davey Luker who was in front of goal but seemed to drag his effort wide, the two goals scored from Cocks and Oldham proved to be enough against a spirited Atherton Collieries Team.

Following the game the Bacup Players & Management had to get away in order to attend their captains Surprise 30th Birthday bash but I quickly managed to speak with the Bacup Manager Brent Peters who had this to say

“I really enjoyed the game today, there were two honest teams on show that wanted, and did play football, Atherton Collieries although defeated can take a lot of pride from that performance, they have some good players and their Manager has got them well organised and from this they can play, this is little wonder they were on an unbeaten run, with regards to our lads nothing changes and I do not want it to change as we have a superb bunch of lads that are all playing for each other, not just that but they are very much a talented bunch that we believe will only get better as the season progresses

Take Arran Walters as a perfect example, a few weeks ago he was struggling to convince me with his performances that he could hold a regular place down, a quiet word, hard but true of my feelings about Arran and to Arran from my Head of Player Development Andy Hill, did make Arran get a grip of himself to such an extent that I have not only eaten my words, I have choked on them, Credit to the lad because that proves everything we as a club are about, not to just dismiss players but to stick with them, work with them to improve them but at the same time as Arran as shown, players also have to want to do it”

Peters finished by saying “ Potentially this game was another banana skin but the team in its entirety deserve surmounting credit for the way they have gone about their responsibilities and with this another win on the road and progress in another cup competition “

Team: Max Johnson, Davey Luker, Arran Walters, Gareth Wager, Kingsley Williams, Ed Williams, Lee Oldham (Mark Taylor), Daniel Cocks, Adam Turner, Tommy Turner (Martin Cosgrave), Haydn Paul (Alex Ralph)

Subs Not Used: Josh Lynch, Matthew Kemp

Goals: Daniel C ocks 10, Lee Oldham 63

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