Seven days ago, the last-minute winner for Hindsford didn’t justify the effort that the lads had put in – and this afternoon was going to take another almighty effort if we wanted to put some more points on the board. We were making the short-trip over to take on Walshaw Sports who were sitting in 2nd-place in the table so as the lads made their way across the A58, minds were focusing on the task in hand…
The week’s worth of rain had definitely seen itself decimate pitches all over the borough but the 3g at Elton High School was going have a real zip to it – so as the players warmed up, that was the message that the coaches were getting across. Quick slick passes would be the order of the day here and whichever team could find their rhythm first would surely get the upper hand. When the starting 11 were announced, it saw us going with the favoured 4-3-3 that saw Kain once again between the sticks and this week we were going with Charlie and Kieran at full-backs – flanking both Ben and Smalley who was dropping further back than usual. The midfield trio was made up of Shorty, Chris (who saw a red here last season) and then Ax who was also playing deeper than normal. Who were the front three then we hear you say? Well – they were Carl, Matty Leatham and Robbie Pollitt – and with a bench consisting of Robbie Smith, Sean and new-signing Jordan – we were good to go. The man in the middle had called both teams together and with a sharp blow of his whistle, the game got underway…
The start of the game was pretty much like-for-like with both sides getting the ball down and playing it. There were chances at both ends – but it was County who should have taken the lead on 7 minutes when Robbie Pollitt was put through but he just couldn’t squeeze the ball past the home keeper from close range. The early signs were promising – but on 10 minutes we had to make a change as Matty had suffered what looked like a twisted ankle – so on came Jordan to make his debut in a move that saw him slot into centre-half with Ben and then Smalley pushed up into his normal role as did Tom Ax – but the changes seemed to rattle us and from a really scrappy affair, the home side started to take control. They had two big lads up top and it quickly became apparent that their game-plan was to play long balls into them and get players in and around. Kain was coping well with sweeping up anything that came in front of him but just before the break, the pressure told and the hosts took the lead. They fed the ball into their forward and as he drove into our box, he shouldn’t have been allowed to get his shot in – but he did and he found the bottom corner with a neat finish. A horrible time to concede and the game-plan would have to be altered now. 0-1…
Half-time: Walshaw Sports 1-0 BOLTON COUNTY
The team-talk was more of a pep-talk as the lads were encouraged to just relax and doing the simple things right. Sure these were a good side – but we were making it a little too easy for them and had to get in and about them a bit more. We needed to keep possession of the football better and work harder than we had been doing so far. Basically – this second half needed to be a lot better than the first – so the lads took the words on board and were back out there ready to go again before we knew it…
However the hosts seemed to have upped it a gear or two as soon as the whistle went and with pacy movement and quick-shifting of the ball, they were piling on pressure that our back four were doing as much as they could to thwart. However we were guilty of some soppy defending as well and before we could take a big breath, Walshaw had grabbed another two quick goals. 0-3 and we now had an awful amount of work to do here…
Jordan then also took a knock and having to sub the sub, we also brought Robbie Pollitt off and that saw Robbie Smith and Sean making an appearance on the pitch. The new forward pair started to give the home side something else to think about and it wasn’t long until the former used his pace to cut in from the right and with a neat pass, he found Ax. Doing what he does best, his footwork dazzled the home defence and he glided through to smash the ball into the back of their net. Reward for our efforts and potentially a way back into the game. 1-3…
We had more chances as well and we thought we’d halved the deficit further when a great ball saw Sean put clean through and with the County contingent willing the ball into the back of their net, they looked on in despair as he could only shoot straight at their keeper and the chance was gone. If that had gone in, it would have made for an interesting finale to this match…
But it wasn’t to be as we pressed the self-destruct button and when we gifted them their fourth goal of the game, we also gifted them the points. With 88 minutes on the clock, we simply switched off and they made us pay as a quick move down their left saw them craft a good ball into the box and before we knew it, the ball was nestling in the bottom corner of Kain’s net. 1-4 and that was that…
The whistle went and with the handshakes done, in truth we just wanted to get changed and make our way to Tonge Cricket Club. This had been a very poor performance from the boys in blue and when we continually give the ball away, we will continue to create our own problems. Thankfully there’s plenty of time to regroup though as we don’t have a fixture next weekend – but then it’s straight back to it with a trip to Pennington in the Lancashire FA Amateur Shield – so we hope the lads put right the wrongs from this one. Ben Tomlinson was awarded the PPSL Man of the Match and like a puff of smoke, we were in our cars and away from here…
The less said about this one the better… We’re support you ever more though lads…
#UpTheCounty!