On a bright sunny
afternoon at our Tempest Road home we welcomed our visitors Heyside Barca. Unfortunately Ladybridge only had nine players
available for the match. The opening
exchanges were very even and it was quite a surprise that on seven minutes
Ladybridge were to take the lead in the game. Nathan made a strong run down the right wing
and went past a couple of defenders before reaching the edge of the penalty box
where he managed to cut the ball back to Dion who stabbed his shot home from
short range to make it 1-0 to Ladybridge. Heysides first effort on goal came 4 minutes
later when they were awarded a free kick on the halfway line where a direct
shot on target was held well by Conor. Ladybridge were battling very well and
restricted Heyside to one clear chance before the break, which was a skied
effort by the number seven that went well over the bar from about 15 yards out.
Halftime Ladybridge 1-0 Heyside.
Heyside started the 2nd
half very quickly and had an early opportunity to level matters when their
number 4 tested Conor from the edge of the box with a good shot, which he did
well to hold on to. Unfortunately
Ladybridge would concede a goal after about six minutes when the ball was fed
out to the number 15 who was free on the right hand side of the box and he
smashed the ball past Conor to make it 1-1.
Heyside started to
stretch the game in the next 10 or 15 minutes when they had a number of
opportunities to go ahead but they found Conor in excellent form, keeping them
out with two or three great stops. With
10 minutes of the game remaining Nathan sent a defence splitting through ball
to Dion but his shot was smothered well by the Heyside keeper. Immediately after Dion's effort the number 11
for Heyside came very close to scoring when he lifted his shot over the bar
from about 25 yards out. Ladybridge had
one final effort on target before the end of the game when Ben fed a ball
through to the edge of the box to find Nathan, whose shot was saved well by the
Heyside No 1. Ladybridge would be denied
the point their efforts deserved when Heyside scored with two minutes remaining
when the No 15 finished off a good move and fired home from close range to
break Ladybridge's hearts to make it 2-1 to Heyside full time.
Heyside battled back well
this afternoon after going behind to the nine men of Ladybridge early in the
first half. They stretched Ladybridge
very effectively throughout the 2nd half and broke our stubborn resistance with
a couple of clinical finishes to take the three league points on offer.
I'm sure most of the
Ladybridge parents thought before kick off that the lads would be on the end of
a right hammering this afternoon with only nine players available. However the lads managed to win the first half
and were only a couple of minutes away from picking up a point that their
collective efforts deserved this afternoon - unlucky lads.
