Bacup Borough manager Brent Peters swooped to sign Max Johnson the young former Newcastle United goalkeeper just 24 hours prior to this game in order to fill what has become of a problem position over the past few games. Whilst Max was rarely brought into the action this signing lifted the entire Bacup camp and they produced a first half of slick passing football at a tempo that the Hillmen from Derbyshire just could not cope with.

Bacup scored twice on nine and fourteen minutes against a side that went rampant themselves in midweek by scoring seven. However, make no mistake had Bacup’s finishing had have been more clinical during the first half Bacup themselves could very easily have been well on their way of reaching that tally, such was their dominance. Apart from an early Glossop free kick which Kingsley Williams conceded at the edge of the Bacup penalty area almost at the start of the half, that was as good as it got for the visitors up until half time as Bacup seemed to be playing with several extra men such was the way they were moving and passing the ball.

The opening goal started with a move down the left side which was played inside to the menacing Daniel Cocks demonstrated that moving the ball with the old 'one - two is harder to defend against than running with the ball that invariable ends in conceding possession. Cocks intelligently not only kept the ball moving but he was always available resulting in him working the ball to Adrian Bellamy. The Bacup right fullback took his man on before cutting inside and delivering a curling shot that gave the Glossop keeper no chance and the ball flew into the far corner of the net.

On fourteen minutes it was Daniel Cocks once again that proved provider as this time he linked up with Arran Walters the Bacup left fullback, when the ball was played into Cocks from Walters, he produced a quality cross into the Glossop penalty area that saw Kingsley Williams with a great spring get up above his own striker Lee Oldham to head a well taken goal and doubling his sides lead.

Whilst on both occasions Cocks proved to be provider he himself should have been on the score sheet following good passing play that started from the Bacup keeper to Walters to Williams who found Matthew Hampson who in turn picked out Daniel Cocks who really should have finished.

With the rain coming down and the pitch and ball greasy there was one defining moment when following Bacup’s goalkeeping errors of the past few games that the Bacup players must have had their hearts in their mouth when a long deep cross was put into the box by Glossop.However,with advancing players putting the debutant keeper under pressure the Bacup players had nothing to fear, as despite the greasy conditions and a difficult ball to take, Johnson’s handling and take was such that it brought a rousing applause from the large Glossop travelling faithful.

Further chances came Bacup Borough’s way coming up to half time when Kingsley Williams dragged his effort just wide of the post and once again another quality move involving several players resulted in Lee Oldham quickly closing down the Glossop keeper forcing him to only clear the ball as far as Cocks whom had he opted to shoot low would have scored, instead he fired at goal at a good height for the keeper to save and with this did come the half time whistle.

The start of the second half it was quite a different story as Glossop started to pose a threat and put pressure onto the Bacup rear guard. In the first half keeper Johnson was a mere spectator not so in the second half where he had to be alert and have all his angles covered as Glossop tried but failed to find a break in getting one goal which they did believe would get them an equaliser. All Glossop’s danger came from free kicks which Bacup were conceding very much around their penalty area.

Bacup made a double substitution, off came Lee Oldham who had put in a tireless performance to be replaced by Tommy Turner and off came Matthew Hampson to be replaced by Mark Taylor who did screen the Bacup defence but it was Bacup Borough’s final substitution in the eightieth minute that did finally put this game to bed, Martin Cosgrave came on to replace Daniel Cocks who had also worked hard and was intelligently involved in a lot of Bacup Borough’s creativity, on eighty eight minutes Cosgrave did make it three when he quickly dispossessed the Glossop defender before finishing very well to give Bacup the points and with them did rise above Glossop in the League.

The Bacup Borough Manager Brent Peters described his teams first half performance as Breathtaking as he had this to say “ Glossop are a strong physical side that will hurt you if allowed as they had shown earlier in the week, however such was the pace that we did start at and did maintain through out the first half, such was the fact that all the lads played as one team collectively with no individuals trying to take too many touches, the fact that we did get the ball in to players and then quickly did get the ball out with our excellent passing and movement, the fact that both Adrian Bellamy’s and Kingsley Williams goals were excellent finishes from well worked football situations just proved too much for our opponents, Peters added we did not have one passenger everything clicked and with it was breathtaking football that all the lads should take real pride in having the ability and technique collectively to produce this, Peters said “ the second half was always going to be different as Glossop would have to change things in order to get back into the game if only to compete on an equal field as the first half was such a one sided affair and the gulf between the two sides at that stage was vast, this Glossop did, so the main thing was could we handle the spell of pressure Glossop did impose upon us, this we did although I was not happy with our organisation or set up on any of the free kicks we conceded around our penalty area, this apart we sustained the pressure, It was also reassuring of having a competent keeper at the back of us, this was a good win against a good side, hopefully now we have put to bed the critical human errors that have cost us in the past and with it we can hopefully string a winning run together, with some difficult games coming up we will need very much to do “

Team: Max Johnson, Adrian Bellamy, Ed Williams, Gareth Wager, Adam Turner, Arran Walters, Davey Luker, Kingsley Williams, Matthew Hampson (Mark Taylor), Daniel Cocks (Martin Cosgrave), Lee Oldham (Tommy Turner)

Subs Not Used: Haydn Paul, Josh Lynch

Goals: Adrian Bellamy 9, Kinglsy Williams 14, Martin Cosgrave 89

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