A bright and crisp sunny morning saw us
compete in our first away league fixture of the season at De La Salle. Dion, Jack and Josh started on the bench with
Caleb still absent through illness (get well soon). The game was very competitive in the opening
minutes with some hard but fair challenges being made by both teams on a tricky
surface. The first opportunity of the
game fell to Ladybridge when a throw in from Ollie on the left found Bayley in
space and with time to deliver a good cross into the penalty area that Taylor
headed just wide. The next ten minutes
saw the game ebb and flow well and DLS had their first attempt on goal during
this period when their No 12 passed well to the No 9 on the right hand side of
the box and his chipped effort on goal just went wide of Conor's right hand
post. Shortly after DLS thought they had
a good shout for a penalty but the ref waved away the DLS players appeals. Tom was the architect of the first goal of
the game when battling well in center midfield to gain possession and slip a
pass through to Taylor who coolly shot past the keeper to make De La Salle 0-1
Ladybridge.
A rare headed effort by Matt up from defence
for a corner sailed just wide of the keepers right post with 5mins of the half
remaining. In the last minute Ladybridge
would double their advantage when Tom made a powerful jinking run from 40 yards
out to unleash a well aimed shot in the box that was much too accurate for the
keeper to take us into the break 2-0 up.
HT De La Salle 0-2 Ladybridge
Ben could have made it three goals up
immediately from the restart when he hit the bar with a decent effort after
some good work down the left hand flank.
DLS however were to enjoy their best spell of the game in the next 5
minutes when they would draw level with Ladybridge. The combination of their No 17 and No 8
unlocked the normally solid Ladybridge defensive four with two well-taken
efforts by the No 8, whose shots flew past Conor twice after superb assists
from the lively No 17. 2-2 with 20 mins
to go.
Ladybridge reacted well to this set back and
5mins later they restored the lead when Tom fed Dion down the right flank and
his awkward bouncing effort deceived the DLS keeper to nestle in the right hand
side of the goal to make it DSL 2-3 Ladybridge.
Nathan was unlucky not to add his name to the scoresheet for Ladybridge
when Ben's cross into the box was powerfully hit on target by Nathan only to
find the keeper equal to the effort and pull off a superb save to deny
him. Our keeper Conor was to play a part
in Ladybridge's fourth goal when he cleared well over the half way line and
Jack's back header fell to Taylor on the run and he would beat the keeper to
make it DSL 2-4 Ladybridge.
Our fifth goal was created by good battling work
by Josh on the edge of the DLS box who delivered a good pass into Jack who shot
home from short range to make it 2-5.
Our last goal was a bit special and an early
contender for goal of the season when Jack found himself in space and with time
to unleash an unstoppable drive from 30 yards out that the keeper couldn't get
near to make it 6-2 Ladybridge.
There was to be a sting in the tail for the
Ladybridge team when DLS were to score the last goal of the game when they
managed to hook a good ball into the penalty box in the last minute and their
No 3 beat our defenders and keeper to the ball to fire home to end the scoring
in the game to make the full time score De La Salle 3-6 Ladybridge.
A good, honest, battling performance was put
up by the DLS team this morning and after being down by 2 goals at half time
they managed to claw their way back into the game in the first ten minutes of
the 2nd half to gain parity at 2-2. Unfortunately for them they would be undone by
some clinical finishing from Ladybridge in the remaining 25mins to go down
6-3. Their keeper was in a lot of pain during
the second half and post match with a hip injury and had to be helped off the
pitch at full time, all at Ladybridge wish him all the best and hope he makes a
speedy recovery.
A very satisfactory mornings work and win that
our overall performance merited and deserved. The Ladybridge coaches and
parents were able to witness and enjoy some superb passing and movement from
all areas of the pitch throughout both halves. Two wins out of two is a good start that will
be tested to the max next week when we take on the early pace setters in the
league Stalybridge Celtic Blues away on Sunday morning.
Gordon
