On a clear bright chilly
morning we travelled to Salford Sports Centre to take on Prestwich Town in the
1st round of the League Cup. We had a
new player join us this morning, a centre back/midfielder Craig who
unfortunately had to leave after the team warm up feeling unwell. Ben started on the bench for Ladybridge.
The surface was a 100% improvement on
last weeks pitch but it would cut up throughout the course of the match. The home side started very brightly and had
the first meaningful effort on goal after 4mins with Conor saving well down to
his right. Ladybridge forced the first
corner of the game after a good run from Dion down the right on 8mins. Josh delivered a good ball into the box and a
header from Jack saw the Prestwich No 1 scramble the ball away for another
corner. Ladybridge would take the lead
against the run of play on 12mins when the Prestwich defence struggled to clear
a bouncing ball on the edge of their box and Jack retrieved possession before
smashing the ball low and hard past the keeper to make it 1-0 to Ladybridge.
The Nos 9 and 17 for
Prestwich would prove to be a real handful for our defensive quartet throughout
the rest of the half and the No 9 was unlucky to see a smart effort go just
wide on about 25mins. Nathan made a mazy
run down the left on 30mins and he found Jack on the edge of the box,
unfortunately he skyed his effort over the bar. Prestwich would pressurise the Ladybridge
defence for the rest of the half and they got the equalising goal that their
play deserved with a minute of the half remaining. The Prestwich front man was able to take
advantage of a defensive mix up between goalkeeper and defender and snuck in to
drive the ball home to make it 1-1.
HT 1-1
Prestwich started really
well after the break and took the lead after a couple of minutes after a
wonderful solo effort by their No 11. He
managed to evade the attention of two of our defenders before slotting past
Conor low into the bottom right hand corner of the net to make it 2-1 to
Prestwich.
Ladybridge were denied an
equaliser 4mins later when their keeper did well to snaffle a ball off the post
from a Ladybridge corner. Dion and
Nathan combined well minutes later when a rasping shot from Nathan was saved brilliantly
by the Prestwich keeper. The game had a
real ebb and flow about it throughout the half with both teams really testing
one another which was excellent to watch for all the spectators. Ladybridge would go a further goal behind when
the No 17 was able to place the ball home after some slack defensive play
allowed him too much time and space in the box and he made no mistake to make
it 3-1 to Prestwich.
Ladybridge would press
hard for the remainder of the half but the Prestwich defence and keeper in
particular repelled all of our attacks well to deny us a way back into the
game. Prestwich nearly scored again with
five minutes of the game remaining when a headed effort from a corner just went
wide of the left hand post. Ladybridge
would gain a consolation goal with a minute of the game remaining when Ben was
up ended in the box for a penalty which Jack smacked home to make it 3-2.
Prestwich deserved to win
the match this morning with a solid team performance from all their squad. Their forwards looked dangerous from the off
and they punished some slack play by the Ladybridge defence for all three of
their goals. Their keeper was also on
top form and pulled off two or three excellent saves to deny us a way back into
the game in the 2nd half. Well done
Prestwich and good luck going forward into the 2nd round of the League Cup.
Ladybridge will have to
take this defeat on the chin and accept that we were outplayed for long periods
throughout the game and beaten by the better team on the day. Hopefully we can bounce back in a positive way
next week when we take on top of the table Hough End Griffins at home in the
League.
There was another
excellent performance this morning on the pitch worthy of mention and that was
from the young referee. He controlled
the game effectively and fairly and conducted himself with a real maturity
throughout the match and produced a ten out of ten performance in my opinion -
well done.
Gordon
