Bacup Borough had only themselves to blame for surrendering an impressive eight match unbeaten run which following a second half of dominance should have been nine unbeaten, however driving players forward in search of the winner left the visitors vulnerable to the counter attack which proved to be their downfall from which the Manchester side got away with an injury time smash and grab and with it leaving Bacup shocked at coming away with nothing.

In the first half there was very little to choose between the two sides Bacup looked a threat going forward whilst Maine Roads threat came from set pieces around the penalty area, Bacup took the lead on thirty five minutes when Alex Ralph did well getting on the ball deep inside his sides half, Ralph worked the ball well before crossing the ball which found Tommy Turner who had his back to goal and was well marshalled by the Maine Road defender, despite this attention Turner did exceptionally well to create just enough space to sharply turn and finish, this goal should have been the break through for Bacup to go onto win the game comfortably and maybe this would have been the case had Lee Oldham have been more patient in his defending as only two minutes later rash defending at the edge of the Bacup area resulted in a free kick being awarded, the ball was delivered with quality but what followed next was harsh on Bacup as the player that did enough to get the ball past the helpless Max Johnson in goal clearly handled the ball and was also in an off side position, the Bacup players were aware and so was the assistant as he raised his flag and spoke to the referee who may as well not have had an assistant as he clearly over ruled him and let the goal stand.

If conceding that goal was not bad enough and so soon after taking the lead within minutes once again Bacup concede another free kick at the edge of the box but this time more central, once again the culprit was Lee Oldham and once again Maine Road made Bacup pay for their rashness with a quality strike into the net, this giving the home side the advantage at the half time break.

At the start of the second half twice Maine Road got in behind Adrian Bellamy to create problems, then Thomas Bentham worked enough space past Adam Turner before getting his shot off that Max Johnson was equal to, at the opposite end the Maine Road keeper pulled off a stunning save from an Alex Ralph effort which was going into the top corner, on sixty five minutes Bacup Borough made their first substitution off came Adrian Bellamy replacing him with Hampson and what a difference the introduction of Matthew Hampson made, from this moment on Hampson was the conductor orchestrating everything in what was an impressive twenty five minutes of sheer quality football from the visitors that Maine Road had no answer too.

Two more substitutions were made with Martin Cosgrave on replacing Alex Ralph and Haydn Paul on replacing Daniel Cocks, not long following Haydn Paul’s introduction his movement proved too much for the Maine Road defender who committed a foul which resulted in the lad being given a yellow card, from the resulting free kick which Lee Oldham delivered with quality enough for Haydn Paul to glance the ball with his head into the far corner of the net getting his side back on level terms, this goal was nothing short of what Bacup deserved having controlled possession for the majority of the second half, further opportunities came for Bacup when Martin Cosgrave got across the bye line with the ball only getting cleared as far out as Matthew Hampson his shot was inches wide of the post, then Tommy Turner did well getting up the bye line before pulling back for Cosgrave but the Maine Road defenders managed to scramble away, at the opposite end a rare attack was broken up by Bacup before playing their slick passing from which the Maine Road Player who had been booked earlier did deliberately handle the ball, the official seemed to reach for his pocket for his cards which would have had to be red, obviously realised he had previously booked the lad, realised the game had almost finished so in the end he did nothing other than award Bacup a free kick deep into the Bacup half, with time almost up Bacup took long and with it pulled our central midfield player out of position and with this everyone naively in vast numbers seemed to over load the left channel, this turned out to have far reaching consequences, as the ball dropped loose at the edge of the Maine Road penalty area, a long clearance up the pitch resulted in a race box to box with Edward Moran pulling away from where the ball was, completely untracked, Maine Road picked him out and from this his shot went in between the fully stretched Max Johnson and the upright, leaving the Bacup players dejected whilst the Manchester men were dancing with delight knowingly that time was up and this time there would be no time for a Bacup recovery.

After the game a despondent Bacup Manager had this to say “Prior to the game the lads were being praised by Andy Hill for the way they were growing up and learning how to manage games, rightly so they deserved those plaudits however in one crazy minute at the end of this game those words fell upon deaf ears and all their good work within this situation as all been undone through total naivety and a lack of leadership, in fact for me what happened and the way it did happen showed me something you would find with Sunday League mentality not something we would expect here at Bacup with a bunch of quality footballers that are striving for bigger and better things from the game, Peters added “ for all our midfield players to loose their shape and discipline as we did and not being organised and ready for a potential counter attack was a cardinal sin that disappointingly cost us points and with it an impressive unbeaten run, Peters added “ on a positive note the introduction of Matthew Hampson was positive in the fact that he got us playing but also credit to his team mates that with their technical ability did compliment Matthew Hampson’s little give and goes, the goal that Tommy Turner scored within a difficult situation was top drawer also his work ethic is showing whilst not quite fully there yet on his fitness but certainly a long way to almost being there, and that is credit to him, the introduction of Haydn Paul and his equalising goal just shows when he gets the quality in has Lee Oldham delivered, then he will finish, Peters concluded “ what happened at the end was a great shame in what would have been an excellent come back, all we can ask now is that the lads learn from this situation and do not let this happen again, this is where strong leadership skills come in, something everyone should strive to be able to implement “

Team: Max Johnson, Ed Williams, Adam Turner, Adrian Bellamy ( Matthew Hampson ) Lee Oldham, Davey Luker, Arran Walters, Kingsley Williams, Alex Ralph ( Martin Cosgrave ) Tommy Turner, Daniel Cocks ( Haydn Paul)

Subs Not Used: Josh Lynch, Matthew Kemp

Goals: Tommy Turner 35, Haydn Paul 86

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