Key news and reports: COUNTY CUP SEMI-FINALS
FAVOURITES BEATEN IN BATTLING DISPLAY
Seafield Rd wasn’t the place for faint hearts on the Sunday morning when our 18s faced Southport in the Lancs FA’s County Cup semi finals. Our opponents, who are Southport FC’s Academy side, arrived with an unbeaten record and hadn’t even conceded a league goal before this game so we were without doubt the underdogs. It wasn’t a day for pretty football either because there was a strong and bitterly cold wind blowing down the pitch making conditions very difficult. We took advantage of the elements in the 1st half and strikes by Jack Mellor and Matty Roach gave us a 2-0 lead at the turn-round. As expected we were under the ‘cosh’ for most of the 2nd half and numerous ‘Delap’ type throw-ins caused us all sorts of problems. Some of these throws were taken from Southport’s own half and were still landing in our 6-yard box. I have never seen such monstrous throw-ins in all my time in football and it was no real surprise when the visitors pulled a goal back with 15 minutes left. Our goal continued to be bombarded by these missile-like throw and corners, and our nerves were stretched even further when the referee played 8 minutes of injury time. However displaying admirable and quite incredible determination our boys managed to hang on to their 2-1 lead to clinch a place in the final making manager Peter Whiteside and all connected with our club very proud of the magnificent character and spirit displayed by our boys.
