As things hot up at the top-end of the table, last weekend’s 6-0 win over Old Alts was much-needed – but now we had to carry that on into the next one as we travelled over to take on Astley & Tyldesley Reserves at The Gin Pit. We had seen these off 5-1 in the home fixture but their recent results have shown that they know what they’re doing – albeit when their first-team haven’t had a fixture. We knew we had a job to do here – but we were determined to do it. Knowing that we travel over to league-leaders Govan next weekend, a good performance here was what was required…
The away changing-room seemed to be in an underground dungeon and as we all squeezed in, there were more changes to the ranks from last weekend. And the fact that Ricky was a no-show meant we didn’t have options up front to call on – but there was a place in the squad for new-signing Jack Holt and with the return of Ste from his holidays and Brian and Matty back from their first-team exploits, we still had the players to do things here. The lads were ready early and out ojn the pitch – but then they were called back in to chill as it was far too early yet. Maybe these things were the cause of what was to come…
When the starting 11 was announced, it did see changes from the team that started seven days ago – with a back four of Shaun and the returning Matty at full-backs and the usual pairing of Gatesie and Robbie in the heart of it. The midfield trio saw the most change – with Brian slotting in with Alex Williams and Jude – and Ste was back on the right up top with Yatesy in the middle and after his heroics last weekend, Bradders deserved another start but this time on the left. The bench was made up of Callum Chadwick, Aaron, Rav and Jack and as kick-off approached, the home side were doing some strange form of bonding by all jumping up in a circle and bouncing into each others’ chests. Whatever floats your boat we suppose…
But right from the off it was clear that the hosts – buoyed on by a large crowd – were wanting this and they were soon in the ascendency. Within 6 minutes they had taken the lead – when were guilty of giving away a cheap free-kick near the edge of our box and as it came in, it looked as though Pomf was going to swallow it up. But for some reason he pushed it back into play – and there was their grateful striker to slam the ball into the roof of our net from about 8 yards out. The only good thing here was that there was still more than enough time to put this right but for now, it was 0-1 to the home side…
And then came the defining moment of the match really – because with only 12 minutes gone, we were down to 10 men. The Astley players were showing their experience and leaving their foot in on the tackle – whilst falling down under ours – and when the referee awarded them another free-kick about 25 yards from goal, our Jude decided to tell him what he thought about it. Unfortunately from about a yard away – and as soon as the match official heard it, he went straight to his pocket and produced his red-card. As expected, Jude was distraught – but it is things like this that teach us lessons and as long as he learns from this, then it’s all good for the future. For now however, we were proper up against it. The resulting free-kick was swung in and not yet mentally switched on to having a man less, their big centre-half managed to rise highest and plant his header past Pomf from close-range. Their fans celebrated wildly and now we had to get on this or it could get silly…
Slight tweaks saw us slip back to a 4-4-1 now though with Yatesy left up top on his own – but the rot seemed to have set in now and we couldn’t seem to find a pass. Alex was desperately trying to force us into the game and we decided to bring Aaron and Jack on in place of Bradders and Shaun – but this didn’t change our fortune either. Because with 36 minutes gone, the home side further increased their lead. This time it was a ball down their right that saw the ball fed into the box and seemingly out-numbered, they managed to slide it into the feet of their winger and he rifled the ball home from about 10 yards out. Our chins were on the floor now – we haven’t experienced this feeling all season so far – but there was a lot of work to do here to stop this from being embarrassing. 0-3 and we had our backs to the wall now…
Thankfully we managed to hold out between then and the half-time whistle and as the referee called time on the first-period, the lads came in knowing that simply hadn’t been good enough…
Half-time: Astley & Tyldesley Reserves 3-0 BOLTON COUNTY RESERVES
What could be said about that? As expected, Callum went all-out on the players and then it was Wayne’s turn to calm things down and be methodical about things. This was about pride now. We had seen their 13-1 win over Leigh and 10 men or not, that is something that the boss definitely didn’t want. We needed to work hard, attack when the chance appeared and make sure that we win all our tackles right from the re-start. We may not come out of this with anything – but at least we could put up more of a fight. This was about heart now and we had to start showing some. The lads knew that they hadn’t put in a shift yet so the hope was that they would go back out there now and put that right…
And they did to a certain extent. The second-half was much more closely contested and credit where it’s due – the 10 men out there did raise their work-rate. Some of the lads hadn’t played a full 90 in time so it was a big effort from them – and for the first 20 minutes or so we were slightly on front. Ste and Brian had switched flanks and that was giving our top-scorer more room to get at them – unfortunately we just didn’t feed him the ball enough. Brian came off in place of Rav on 62 minutes and Callum Chadwick swapped with the tiring Alex Williams in the midfield and on we went in search of at least something out of this…
In truth we hadn’t really tested their No.1 at all this afternoon and apart from a Brian header and a weak effort from Yatesy, he had probably had the easiest afternoon he’d had for a while. Yatesy then had to come off and we put Bradders up top with Rav on the right and by now, it was clear that our long unbeaten league-run was coming to an end today…
Confirmed when – on 77 minutes – they grabbed their fourth goal of the game. Again it was a soft one to concede but this time a ball through the middle saw them have a spare man and as their guy shot from about 16 yards out, it went right through Pomf’s legs and nestled into the back of our net. Just seemed today up that and with Wayne, Callum and Brian now just pleading for the final-whistle, the home fans were jumping up and down. 0-4…
Rav then went for a cameo role up top and we had to bring Shaun back in for the cramped-up Aaron but by now, the game was over and it was damage-limitation that was in order. And the boys out there did well with that – so when the whistle went to end the game, we had only lost that second-period 0-1. But that was that. Our unbeaten run is over – and hopefully that target on our backs has lessened somewhat. The handshakes were done with respect and as the players left the field, they knew themselves that this had been one to forget about…
The showers were ice-cold in the dark, dank underbelly of the Astley Miners Institute and as the sombre mood of the changing-room took hold, the boss was quick to remind them that their efforts in those second 45 minutes did not go unnoticed. We put this one to the back of our minds as soon as we can because things don’t get any easier over the next few weeks – and we come back training on Wednesday looking to put things right. That trip to The Armitage Centre next weekend is not one for the faint-hearted – and we are going to need to want that one a whole lot more than we did this…
A bad day at the office for County – but it’s the first one we’ve had in a very long while…
#UpTheCounty!