Once AGAIN Bacup Borough have come away from a game from which their overhaul team performance certainly never warranted defeat but again it was the story of one individual not undertaking his responsibilities within the set up of two second half set pieces, a situation which left the Bacup Manager Brent Peters Fuming when he had this to say “We as a Management team we take great pride in our organisation and attention to detail within all aspects of our team shape & set up, spending time with players in order that they are fully aware of their responsibilities both in and out of possession but more to the point which players are responsible for marking on set pieces,

Peters added “ I can accept when a player competes but looses out because his opposite number gets the better of him, this can happen, however what I will NOT put up with is when one individual fails to be anywhere near his marker from the outset, in other words hiding and shirking his responsibilities, Peters added “ following a corner the Runcorn (9) was stood unmarked on the blind side of all of our defenders, when the ball on the second phase came over he had that much time to wait for the ball to drop before firing back into the net,

Peters went on, if this was not bad enough Runcorn won a free kick from a wide position, whilst our set up and organisation on defending this kick was not the best, once again it was (9) Matthew Atherton who was once again unmarked and from this was gifted the opportunity of scrambling the ball unopposed over the goal line following an initial stop from keeper Matthew Wrigley,

Peters fumed “ I could name and shame the player to whom had the responsibility of marking (9) this I will not do as I will at least show the lad some dignity and Respect, it is a pity that the lad in question has not got the same mind set of Respect for his team mates and supporters to whom he has let down, the players are fully aware of which player on both occasions was afforded this responsibility, the player in question as big time let us all down, not because he was out battled, the lad was a country mile away from his marker to have any chance of being out battled, the player in question as let us all down because he, big time shirked on his responsibilities,

Peters finished by saying “ with the scores at 1-1 and taking into consideration in particular our second half performance, Bacup were the team constantly on the ascendancy, it looked like the least we would come a way with was one point, Runcorn got the three points and credit to them for that but no way did they deserve the three and Bacup deserved nothing, far from it, however when one individual fails in his duties be it lack of concentration, be it lack of discipline then for how well the team work, for how much we dominate a game, for how well certain individuals play and in this game Aaran Hevingham had an excellent debut followed by good workman like performances from Davey Luker & Lee Oldham, it is all for nothing, in our previous game it was our keeper that inexplicably let a ball go through his hands and in this game it was an individual defender that fails to pick up, it is soul destroying for us all but rest assured these situations will be quickly addressed as I am not putting up with it “

The first forty five minutes with Bacup having to defend against a strong wind did well going in at the break level as Runcorn had worked some very good openings , Runcorn almost took an early lead when first of all the Bacup keeper inexplicably waited for a ball to come back to him at the edge of his area, the Runcorn striker quickly intercepted the ball before taking it around the Bacup keeper but with defenders quickly back in, the player in question could not add the finishing touch, then Arran Walters sliced wind assisted clearance did whistle over his own cross bar.

The second half was a different story, Bacup started to play with the ball on the ground, Debutant Aaran Hevingham showed why Manager Brent Peters did go to great lengths in attracting the lad to Bacup, both Hevingham and Luker assisted by Lee Oldham started to make Bacup play but not before the home side had taken a forty eighth minute lead, this following a corner which initially was taken short before the ball being delivered from which the isolated figure of Matthew Atherton was allowed time for the ball to drop before shooting his side in front, this lead was short lived as Bacup mounted one of several attacks down the Runcorn left where Martin Cosgrave was getting the better of his marker, it was following good work from Cosgrave that he delivered a good ball in for Lee Oldham to finish well.

As the game progressed Bacup were looking the most likely winners having the upper hand in midfield however what was not legislated for was Bacup conceding what was a needless free kick in their left channel, the ball was delivered in with quality, a scramble appeared in the box but no surprise adding the final touch was yet again unmarked Matthew Atherton to win his side the three points.

Team: Matthew Wrigley, Adrian Bellamy, Gareth Wager, Adam Turner, Marcus King, Arran Walters, Aaron Havingham, Davey Luker, Lee Oldham, Daniel Cocks, Martin Cosgrave ( Haydn Paul)

Subs Not Used: Tommy Turner, Matthew Kemp, Ed Williams, Aleem Salim

Goals: Lee Oldham 52

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