This afternoon we
travelled away to the impressive 3G pitch and facilities at Brownedge School to
take on Bamber Bridge Blues in the 3rd round of the Lancs Youth Cup. We had a
full squad available for the game and Josh, Bayley, Caleb and Dion started on the
bench for Ladybridge. The first ten
minutes of the game would be Ladybridge's best period of the whole game when we
would dominate possession and territory. However this was to be as good as it got for
the away team as Bamber Bridge would dominate the remaining hour of the game
and ultimately dispatch us out of the Cup that we had previously enjoyed an
unbeaten run stretching back over two seasons. James A, our former player, made a fantastic run
past a couple of challenges on 15mins only for Conor to save well from his shot
on goal. The first goal of the game came
mid way through the half when Conor conceded a penalty after bringing down a
Bamber Bridge player in the box and up stepped the No 8 who powerfully
converted to make it 1-0 to Bamber Bridge.
We would come close to an
equaliser 5mins later when Taylor headed wide from a Jack corner. It was to be a corner that undid us again with
a couple minutes of the half remaining when the Bamber Bridge No 15 steered a
lovely header into the bottom right hand corner to make it 2-0 just before the
half time whistle.
HT Bamber Bridge 2-0
Ladybridge
Bamber Bridge came out of
the blocks quickly after the break when a defensive error gave the ball to
their No 15 who picked up James Y (another former player) on the left but he just lifted his shot over
the bar. It looked like Bamber Bridge
were quite content to sit on the lead for long periods during the 2nd half and
to try and break quickly down the flanks. Ladybridge were unable to break with any real
purpose throughout the 2nd half and were to be frustrated by some very competent
possession play by Bamber Bridge to protect their lead. In fact I cannot remember us troubling their
goalkeeper too much throughout the half. The last ten minutes of the game saw Bamber
Bridge play some very attractive passing football with some nice touches. The last goal of the game came after a
sequence of fine passes found James Y in space on the left with 5mins of the
game remaining and he finished clinically to end the scoring in the game to
make it 3-0 to Bamber Bridge.
This afternoon we were
well beaten by a better team on the day. They looked a yard sharper than us all over
the pitch and apart from the first ten minutes of the game there only looked to
be one team that would prevail and progress to the next round. Bamber Bridge
look well schooled on the 3G pitch and I'm sure they'll progress well into
the latter stages of the Lancs Cup and good luck to them and their supporters
for the rest of the season.
Two defeats in two games
isn't something I've had to report on for quite a while and although losing to
a last minute goal last week could be put down to a bit of bad luck the same
couldn't be said today. Outplayed and
outpassed for the majority of the game is tough to watch and I'm sure even
tougher to play in. However I hope that
nobody gets too down on themselves, as losing and learning as a team will make
us a stronger unit going forward. Our lads will need our support more than ever
next week when we hope to bounce back positively in the league when we meet
Manchester Lads.
A final word on the ref,
who controlled and managed the game on and off the pitch very fairly and
effectively throughout the 70mins, in a game that required a strong official I
thought the young man put in an exemplary performance - well done!
Gordon
