On a cold grey windy
afternoon we travelled to our hosts new and much-improved venue at Ashton
College. Bayley, Tom, Nathan and Caleb (who has made a good recovery from his
recent illness) started on the bench.
We could have snatched an
early lead when good work by Ben released Dion who was unlucky just to shoot
wide. However, Stalybridge were to take
an early lead after five minutes when their No 17 was found well on the edge of
the Ladybridge box and he managed a cute chipped effort over an advancing Conor
to make it 1-0 Stalybridge. Jack had a good chance to level things up a few
minutes later from a free kick 30 yards out but his well-struck effort sailed
over the bar. Taylor had a headed effort
from a corner saved well by the Stalybridge keeper midway through the half. Stalybridge had the ball in the back of the
Ladybridge net with 10mins of the half remaining only to see it ruled out for
offside. Both sides were cancelling each
other out with some good passing and movement that just lacked the finishing
touch in front of goal. The Stalybridge
No 7 was denied a goal on the stroke of half time when Conor made a fine save
to push his effort past his right hand post.
Half Time Stalybridge 1-0
Ladybridge
Stalybridge started the
2nd period brightly and the No 17 and 9 were combining well offensively and the
No 9 was unlucky not to steer a goal home when he rounded Conor on the right
only to see his effort just go wide. The
weather took a turn for the worse after 10mins when the rain made an unwelcome
appearance and with the rains arrival we witnessed Ladybridge turn this game on
its head with 25mins of the game remaining. The all important equallising goal came after
Ben battled well to retrieve possession within the Stalybridge half and his
pass forward was taken into the box well by Taylor who made no mistake from a
good angle to make it 1-1.
The momentum of the game
switched after this goal and Ladybridge would open up a three goal cushion in
the next ten minutes. Taylor and Jack
combined well for the next goal with Taylor providing a good flick-on pass to
Jack to fire home from 10 yards. Stalybridge 1-2 Ladybridge.
Liam was to score the
next goal that his overall effort and battling work deserved when Tom found him
on the left hand side of the box and Liam finished with a lovely effort over
the keeper to make it 3-1.
Stalybridge could have
got a goal back when their No 4 burst through midfield and numerous challenges
to make a good 40 yard run that saw his shot just go over Conor's bar. Josh was instrumental in setting up Jack for
his 2nd goal of the match when he beat two players to find Jack in the box and
he turned strongly to guide his shot into the bottom right hand corner of the
net. 4-1 to Ladybridge
Jack almost turned
provider a minute later when he found an advancing Dion down the left flank and
he was unlucky to shoot just wide with 5mins to go. Stalybridge were to pull a goal back when
Ladybridge lost possession on the half way line and some excellent passing
between three players resulted in a good goal to make it 4-2.
Ladybridge finished off
the scoring in the game though with 2mins to go when Tom who had worked
tirelessly throughout the 2nd period was found by a smart pass from Josh and
Tom slammed the ball home from short range to make the final score Stalybridge
2-5 Ladybridge.
Stalybridge were always
likely to provide us with our toughest test in the league so far and so it
proved when they headed us by a goal for a good 45mins. They play the ball on the deck and try to pass
and move the ball forward through to their pacy strikers quickly and they
caused us problems throughout the game with their positive approach to playing
the game the right way.
Ladybridge eventually
broke down our tough opponents with an electrifying 25 minutes of play and
three unanswered goals in the 2nd half that would see us eventually turn the
game around and gain a good away win against a quality outfit - well done lads.
Roach Dynamos are next up
in the 2nd round of the Lancashire Youth Cup at home next Sunday afternoon.
Gordon
