Key news and reports: 30/31st JANUARY 2010
A WIN, A DEFEAT AND A DRAW IN TOP-TABLE CLASHES
Perhaps we were being a little optimistic in thinking that reaching the end of January meant winter was over at last but we were given a sharp reminder this weekend that this most certainly wasn’t the case. A very hard frost on the Friday night made pitches frozen hard for the PDPL 7-a-side games on the Saturday morning causing another virtual fixture wipe-out for the league but our 9s managed to play their game, although the kick-off had to be delayed for 45 minutes for the pitch to thaw out enough to make it safe for our meeting with league leaders Fleetwood Town. Well done as well to referee Mike Wilsdon for agreeing to this. It finished all square with a 1-1 draw in the A game, Alex Price our marksman, followed by a goalless contest in the B game which were excellent results by our boys.
We then woke up on the Sunday morning to find a covering of snow on the ground but fortunately, most of it had melted by early afternoon and although a few games were postponed, three top-of-the-table clashes at Seafield all went ahead. Our 11s, 2nd in the table, played 3rd placed FC Rangers, the only team to have beaten us this season and we avenged that defeat with a 4-2 victory, Kai Leyland and George Byrne netting two goals apiece. Our 12s, who were league leaders, entertained 2nd placed Lytham Juniors which turned out to be cracker of a contest. We led 1-0 at the break with a great Jordan Milligan strike but within 10 minutes of the restart Lytham had taken a 2-1 lead. However, we finished strongly and a Chris Clinch goal leveled the scores and it ended in a 2-2 draw, which I felt was a very fair result to a very entertaining encounter. It wasn’t a good day for our 13s though. Just 7 days after the achievement of reaching the County Cup Final we taking on South Shore who were joint league leaders with us, and it was the visitors who came out on top. Aiden Atchison had given us the lead but Lytham made it 1-1 by half time and although we had the better of the 2nd half Shore netted twice more inside the last 10 minutes to snatch a 3-1 victory. Over at Bispham our 15s romped to a mammoth 17-0 victory over a depleted Blackpool Rangers side, Adam Stephenson bagging five of our goals.
REFRESHING HONESTYI saw something at Seafield Rd that afternoon which you don’t see too often, a club linesman awarding a goal to the opposition in a top-table clash. Our 13s and South Shore were level at 1-1 when a shot looked to have been cleared off the YMCA goal-line by a defender. A Shore attacker claimed that the ball had crossed the line but the referee wasn’t in a position to judge. However, YMCA linesman Richard Stubbs indicated that the ball had entered the net before it was cleared and the referee then duly awarded a goal which put the visitors ahead. Thankfully, this didn’t decide the issue because Shore added another to seal victory but how refreshing to see such honesty. Well done to Mr Stubbs.
