For Bacup Borough and Manager Brent Peters it does not rain but it pours. Going into this fixture with the Leagues current early pace setters Flixton, Manager Brent Peters had no less than eight first team regulars missing. This did include last seasons leading goal scorer Ian Barker, Captain Ian Hughes and experienced defender Lee Anderson and in addition to this Stewart Shepherd and John Borg both had to play despite injuries. Defender Wayne Jopson pulled his thigh muscle in the warm up prior to kick off and had to be replaced after fifteen minutes of the game.
To add insult to the injuries the game was only three minutes old when on loan defender Paul Riley from Curzon Ashton was caught cold and his former team mate at Curzon Steven Moore capitalized on his indecisiveness to give the visitors an early lead. This set back unsettled the home side for the first quarter of the half until Manager Brent Peters changed the shape following the departure of the injured Jopson. Bacup's best chance came when Dave Luker did well to dispossess the Flixton player before delivering the ball down the line for Lee Oldham who passed to Bryan Herbert who’s shot was well saved by David Rouse in the visitors goal. The sore line could easily have been all square come the break but that early Flixton goal did separate the two sides.
At the start of the second half Steven Moore of Flixton went round Riley before delivering a stunning shot which brought an equally stunning save from Jack Mcgregor in the Bacup goal. From this moment on Bacup put the visitors on the defensive for long periods such was their dominance. Bacup won a free kick for a foul which Tony Carroll placed into the path of Davey Luker who put the ball across the Flixton goal line, striker Bryan Herbert came in at the back post with what should have been the most simplest of goals but turned out to be an embarrassing miss from one yard out. Bacup still went in search for the equiliser which led to the back door being left open on one occasion when through indecision by Lee Oldham who allowed a Flixton defender to pinch the ball before knocking it long up field but the young impressive Bacup keeper pulled off a fine save to keep Borough in the game. With a total lack of a finisher upfront despite Boroughs pressure they were left ruing missed opportunities to get at least one point from this game.
Manager Brent Peters Comments "I am convinced that myself and my coaching staff have all ran over black cats, we are just not having any luck what so ever in terms of injuries, it is bad enough players taking time off to go to weddings which are not their own and taking holidays in the football season, but in addition to this we are getting more than our share of injuries which is testing our squad. The simple fact of this game was their opening goal caught Paul Riley still finding his feet. This apart we did create enough chances to have got back level and who does know an equiliser could have taken us to another level to go on to win the game but if we miss from one yard out then we got what we deserved – nothing. Hopefully I will have my goalscorer back for the game against Silsden on Wednesday at the Brian Boys West View Stadium" Back
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