Saturday 9th February 2008
Away v New Mills Lost 3 - 0
NWCL Reserve Division
A very depleted ALR Reserve squad travelled to
New Mills in Derbyshire on Saturday to face an in form home side bursting with
confidence after a fine run of league form and an excellent win against Kirkham
& Wesham in the Reserve Cup last week. With only 6 players available from the 15
man squad who faced Padiham a couple of weeks ago it was always going to be a
very difficult fixture and so it proved with LR led on the day by hard working
Ben Hyde going down to what was in the circumstances a very creditable 3-0
defeat.
With both young goalkeepers Chris Brinksman and Ant Glover away on holiday a
literal last second signing was necessary to bring in Dave Balmer. Also making
their debut in midfield was another 17 year old Danny Pettifer with third new
last minute signing Sean Ashton up front.
With both experienced Centre backs unavailable on the morning of match a
completely reshaped defence superbly marshalled on the day by the
excellent combative Wes Edwards held out really well for the first 30 minutes
under sustained pressure only allowing the New Mills a single clear
opportunity although new keeper Balmer faced a barrage of longer range efforts
which were all dealt with really well.
The game plan was basically to play deep with a flat 4 man back protected by a 5
man midfield with LR relying on quick breaks to take advantage of any home side
mistakes and on 25 minutes created the clearest chance of the game when young
David Hill intercepted a ball in midfield ahead of the full back and raced down
the right put in an inch perfect cross which should have resulted in a tap in
but the chance was squandered.
LR fell behind on 33 minutes after a corner was partially cleared but retrieved
at the far post and returned for a tap in from a yard - very
disappointing to go in a 1-0 down but you have to be realistic sometimes and say
that was a fair reflection of the possession the home side had
enjoyed.
Substitute Chris Anderton came on second half for the injured Wayne Gore and we
were now down to the bare 11 players with another tough 45 minutes ahead.
The second half was in most respects very similar to the first with home side
moving the ball around quickly with sharp central midfielders and natural width
supported by full backs pushing on at every opportunity, but to LR's great
credit they never stopped running and battling despite at least two players not
having any sort of match fitness. After 61 minutes a freekick was conceded just
outside the LR penalty box on right and was converted with an unstoppable
swerving left foot curler. At this time LR were effectively down to 10 men with
Andy Gillespie struggling with a hamstring injury and the last 20 minutes were
very difficult. In the last few seconds an unnecessary free kick was converted
past the excellent Dave Balmer in goal to make it 3-0.
I do not like making excuses and I like losing even less but apart from a couple
of moments of indiscipline which were disappointing given the
importance of not conceding free kicks around the box the players came out of
this with great credit and I couldn't have asked for more commitment. We put
together a game plan 15 minutes before kick off and to a man everyone stuck to
it.
There were a number of positives that we can take out of a game that we could
not realistically expect to win in the circumstances (even with a
full strength squad it would have been a tough fixture ) and the important thing
was to come out of it with our pride intact ,
The LR MOM was new keeper Dave Balmer who will prove a valuable addition to the
LR GK squad.
The next fixture is top of the table Glossop NE at home next Saturday and
hopefully we will have a much stronger squad available for what will be
another very tough fixture as we will have faced the top four sides in our last
four games.
Special thanks to Neil Gore for getting all the new signings sorted
Team - Dave Balmer, Andrew Gillespie, Wes Edwards, James Appleton, Wayne
Gore, David Hill, Ben Hyde (Capt), Danny Pettifer, Nick Kania, Jason Gore, Sean
Ashton Sub Chris Anderton( HT for Wayne Gore injured)