The defeat at home to Atherton Town at the weekend had gone – and tonight saw us with the chance to end this drab run of form we’ve been on and start getting back to what we do best – and that is playing football! We were making the unenviable trip over to Leigh on a Wednesday night and that in itself is a mission – but we were going over to take on Leigh Foundry in the quarter-final of the Atherton Charity Cup. Still without a full squad, tonight was another chance for some of the lads to really stake their claim on a first-team spot so as we started to arrive, there was a confident mood emulating out of the away dressing room…
With the warm-up’s done it was time to name the starting 11 and tonight saw a debut between the sticks for Mark and a back four in front of him of Robbie Pollitt and Kieran at full-backs with Finchy partnered by the returning Hodgy in the middle. Smalley, Shorty and Houghie made up the midfield trio and with Carl and Chez on the wings, that meant that we had Mal leading the solitary line on his own. The bench tonight saw us go with Robbie Smith, Matty Leatham and Brian and as the coaches fed their last lines of encouragement to their troops, the message was clear. We needed to get back to getting the ball down. passing it well and creating chances. The lads looked up for it and as they trotted out there, the travelling County fans showed their appreciation…
But that stopped there really because tonight we were simply out-fought and out-played in every area of the park. The hosts went a goal up when a straight through-ball cut us in two and there was their striker to stride forward and stroke his shot low and hard past the advancing Mark. Not the start we wanted and for the fourth game running, we had it all to do. 0-1…
Things got doubly worse and unfortunately it was all of our own doing – as a short back-pass from Robbie Pollitt saw Mark kick the ball against the advancing striker and the ball looped high and over our No.1 and into the back of our net. When luck is against you, it seems to be there all the time. And that’s how we’re feeling at the moment. 0-2 and we had to keep our chins off the floor…
Two soon became three when the hosts worked the ball forward and we missed several opportunities to tackle them – allowing them to run at pace and as they poured forward, all we could do was make the foul and the referee blew for a free-kick. Up stepped the Foundry midfielder and he made no mistake in slamming his shot into the top corner and giving Mark no chance of keeping it out. 0-3 and if we didn’t wake up quickly this could get embarrassing…
Credit to the County lads though and we kept ploughing away trying to claw ourselves back into this. Mal was working hard to close down their defences and when they did get the ball forward, Finchy and Jack were trying to narrow the spaces – but it was the Foundry lads that got the next goal as well – and this was another hard one to follow. Leigh had won a corner over on the left and as it was curled in, it looked to all the world that Mark had gathered it and the danger had gone. But he must have been unsighted because he couldn’t get it under control and as the ball fell, it landed right at the feet of the Foundry striker who said ‘thank you very much’ and tucked it home neatly inside the left-hand post. 0-4 and that was enough now. We had to stop the flow right now…
We did rally though and as the coaches had been trying to say all game, when we get it down and pass it as well as we can, we can cause any team’s trouble. We started seeing more of the ball from that moment on and when we did get on the scoresheet, it was that man Carl that got it. We had won a corner over on the right after some good work between the lines and as the ball was swung in, there was Carl to slam it towards goal. The Leigh keeper made a stunning save to stop it going in but as the rebound came out, there was Mr Airey to ram the rebound home and make the score stand at 1-4. At least we had something to show for our huffing and puffing now…
That was that really. Robbie Smith came on at some point and as the match saw the seconds tick down, both sides were awaiting the whistle now but for very different reasons. The home team because they are now in the semi-final and the County lads because we just wanted to get out of here and home again. This had been another not so successful day at the office…
As the lads trudged off, they were quickly reminded that we didn’t have too long to put this out of our memories – because we’re straight back to league action on Saturday and the trip over to take on Heywood St James. Having gained their first point of the campaign with a 3-3 draw against Springfield, we know that we will need to raise our game considerably if we want to be bringing back to Bolton with us. We know we’re good enough…
A huge thank-you to tonight’s hosts for their hospitality and we wish you all the very best for the next round and the season ahead. And nuff respeck to the County fans that made the journey over tonight to cheer us on. Mucho appreciationio…
Another one to forget. Let’s hope we’re not saying that again by 4pm on Saturday eh?
#UpTheCounty!