On a cloudy overcast
afternoon we welcomed our first opponents of the season Chorley Wanderers in
the 1st round of the Lancashire Youth Cup. Due to an administrative error
Nathan was unable to start the game for us and Josh and Ollie were away on
Family holidays. There have been a few
changes to the squad this season with us saying goodbye to three good lads in
Cole, James Y and James A who will ply their trade elsewhere this season. A big thank you goes out to all of them for their
superb efforts for us last season. Our
four new additions to the squad who have all been settling in well during the
pre-season are Liam, Nathan, Jack and Bayley who hopefully will enjoy their
forthcoming season with us. Dion started
the match on the bench.
Ladybridge opened the game up well and the
passing and movement the lads showed in the first ten minutes was wonderful to
watch and they managed to push CW back into their own half for long periods. Ladybridge forced at least four corners
during this period and the CW defence and their keeper all did well to keep us
at bay. Captain Sam had a rare effort on
goal go just over the bar on 15mins when Jack's cross found him on the edge of
the box. However, Chorley would take the lead with their first foray forward
when their No 8 was found with a decent through ball and he managed to sneak
ahead of our static back four before rounding Conor to finish well to make it
Ladybridge 0-1 Chorley.
Ladybridge continued to
dominate the rest of the half with some fantastic work down both flanks with an
impressive Liam and Dion providing good balls into the box only to find the
keeper and defence unwilling to concede a goal. The final effort of the half for Ladybridge
came after a lung-busting run from Liam whose pulled-back pass to Ben in the
box, saw his shot go wide.
Half Time : Ladybridge 0-1
Chorley Wanderers.
Ladybridge would need to
make a fast start to the 2nd half and hopefully regain parity that their first
half possession and territory deserved. Ben
and Taylor both came close to opening Ladybridge's account when their efforts
just went wide in the first 5mins. Our
first goal came after Conor cleared well to find Callum in space. Callum then released the ball on to Jack whose
accurate through ball found Taylor in the box and in space and he dinked the
ball over the advancing keeper to make it 1-1.
Bayley was unlucky not to
find himself on the score-sheet minutes later when his shot crashed against the
crossbar with Liam just failing to slot home from the rebound. Our 2nd goal came after a battling back tackle
from Taylor found Dion free on the right to float a ball across the box that
Jack smashed home on the volley to make it 2-1.
CW were battling well
throughout this period and their keeper made a couple of great stops to deny
us. However he could do nothing to keep out a special effort from 30 yards out
by Callum who looped his shot into the top left hand corner and celebrated with
a Mo Farah inspired "mobot", 3-1.
Our fourth goal came
after a determined run and shot from Dion which the keeper managed to parry but
Tom snaffled up the loose ball to find the back of the net to make it 4-1.
Our fifth and final goal
of the game was provided by our previous scorer Tom, whose pass forward into
the box saw Taylor flick his shot over the keeper to make it 5-1.
Full Time Ladybridge 5-1
Chorley Wanderers.
Chorley Wanderers came
and gave us a good game this afternoon and excellent work by their defence and
keeper helped them to maintain their first half lead into the break. Unfortunately for them they were unable to
continue this into the 2nd half when Ladybridge managed to secure the win with
five unanswered goals. Chorley's players
never gave up this afternoon and gave an excellent account of themselves with
their keeper in particular putting in a great individual performance. Good luck for the rest of the season in Div 1
of CLJFL.
Ladybridge played well
this afternoon and although unlucky to go in behind at half time, they showed
great resolve and better finishing during the 2nd half to comfortably progress
into the 2nd round of the Cup. Our new
players looked sharp and hungry and a solid workman like performance in the 2nd
half saw us gain the victory our overall performance deserved.
League business starts on
Thursday with a game at home against Bolton Wyresdale.
Gordon
