Spent much of the first half stood behind the Ashton keeper Lee Bracey (recently signed from Mossley - an excellent keeper who I once had the privilege of voting "Man of the Match" when I sponsored the match ball at a Belper Town Town v Mossley game). He was soon called into action after about 9 minutes when he managed to deflect a "one on one" over the bar.
Lee Bracey "sets up" the first goal...
Four minutes later Matthew Kay scored a cracker following some great work on the ground with Ashton slicing through the middle of the Burscough defence. This did wonders for the confidence of the team - the few Burscough attacks were well repelled - and Bracey's mouth was working overtime keeping the defence in order !!
On the half-hour a pretty similar move - through the middle on the ground - saw Danny Forde make it 2-0 - and to be honest Ashton were cruising at this time. Cooney was working his socks off down the right whilst Garry Kharas was holding things up well up front - but where was Ciaran Kilheeney ?? He was stood in the crowd wearing a suit - because he'd just signed for (wait for it) Burscough !.
2-0 at half-time - a Burscough fan pointed out Ryan Bowen to me and I nipped over for a natter. You may remember that Ryan had a horrific collision with a concrete wall in the game at Mossley a few weeks ago - tonight he was sitting on a concrete terrace rather than head-butting it ! He said he was fine (apparently he'd been on the pitch for the warm-up) and is now back "available for selection" as they say - having seen the accident at Mossley it was good to see him up and about. He also reckoned he got the bill for the concrete panel - but I think/know he was having a larrff ! Other "spots" at half-time were Mossley Manager Jason Beckford and Coach John Murphy (a quiet word with someone "in the know" had told me that an alleged offer had gone in for Kilheeney from Mossley - but ...)
The second half started a little more evenly but then there was a wonderful comedy/farce moment when Burscough number 5 Farrell Kilbane was "sent off" following an injury - he waited ...and waited . and waited to return to the fray only for the ref to ignore him (for too long I felt). The Burscough bench were shouting, screaming etc to get him back on and finally the ref came over to "shut them up" and allow him back on. He then - rather stupidly - gave the ref an ironic round of applause. Oops - he'd been booked earlier - so a second yellow it was, and this time he was sent off for real !
10 against 11 is often tricky, and with five minutes to go, Byrne pulled one back for Burcough following a swift move down the left. But I reckon it would have been a gross injustice if Ashton had not got the three points tonight - and sure enough they did, but it was a sweaty last five (plus three added on) for the Ashton faithful.
A well deserved win for a team that tonight gave 100% commitment, fought for everything, admittedly tired in the last quarter, but held out for a valuable three points.
With the Ciaran Kilheeny transfer only going through today I've got to show you what was probably a "prophetic moment" from tonight's programme - courtesy Robin:
Now tell me Saturday's lottery numbers !!!
Home via Stalybridge Station Buffet for a couple of pints of Millstone "Three Shires" - and back to this...tomorrow it's Radcliffe Borough v Mossley - straight from work because I'm on yet another training course - it took us a couple of hours this morning to get the software set up - so we're a little behind schedule ... are you allowed to go to a football match in shirt and tie - if you're not an official ??
2 comments:
I know it was discussed on the Ashton Forum, but the ref wouldn't let Kilbane back on because it was a blood injury he had gone off for and the ref has to wait for a stoppage in play before letting him back on.
Fair enough I knew it was a "blood" jobbie, but I guessed that the 'allowing players back on' rule was the same as for an injury i.e. ref can wave them on at any time without having to wait for a break (throw-in, foul, goal kick etc). Is that because ref has to do double-checks on the injury ??
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