Pre-Season 1994/95
Friday 22nd July 1994 Home v Bolton Wanderers (Friendly) Lost 1 - 0
Bolton once again brought their first team to Crilly Park and big crowd, around
3000, saw a below par performance from Bolton. Before the game the new stand was
officially opened by Nat Lofthouse. David Lee and John McGinley were rampant in
the Atherton area and Stubbs kept things under control at the back, but other Bolton
first team regulars were made to look ordinary by a much improved Laburnums midfield.
It took Bolton half an hour to score the only goal of the match. McDonald broke
down the right wing and sent a perfect cross in for Mark Patterson to head home.
Five minutes later Coyle lobbed the ball over keeper Andy Hills, but it came off
the crossbar. The second half wasn't much of a spectacle as both sides battled
to gain the upper edge. In the last minute Keith Ingham nearly stole an
equaliser for LR when his shot was heading goalwards before being deflected away
by Stubbs at the last moment.
Monday 25th July 1994 Home v Manchester City XI (Friendly) Drew 1 - 1
A number of City's first choice players turned out for this
friendly. Both sides started the game slowly, but in the 10th minute City took
the lead when Scott Thomas hit a superb ball in from the right and some poor
defending by Atherton allowed Simpson all the time he needed to head the ball into the
bottom corner of the net. The game became rather scrappy after that, with some
poor play by both sides, the only other exciting moment of the game came when
Mike Quigley let fly from 30 yards, forcing Andy Hills in the Atherton goal to make an
excellent save.
The second half was just five minutes old when Dave Liptrott charged through the
City defence and flicked the ball past the keeper to equalise. The game took off
then as both sides fought to gain the upper hand, Jeremy Lord and Brian Livesey coming close
for Atherton, but after 90 minutes the score remained 1-1