Saturday 26th January 2008
Away v Padiham Lost 2 - 1
NWCL Reserve Division
ALR reserves travelled to East Lancashire on
Saturday to play a strong Padiham outfit on an excellent pitch at a windy
Arbories Memorial Sports Ground.
As this was first reserve game since the 3 - 4 AET cup defeat to to Kirkham &
Wesham back in mid December it was always going to be difficult but the squad
was strengthened by the return from suspension of Ashley Elliot from the 1st
team squad and 3 new club signings brought in by Rob Hope, Karl McDonald ,
Graham Bellis and Paul Tilley.
LR started slowly and soon fell behind on 4 minutes as Padiham started much the
more composed with a good strike from 15 yards past the young LR goalkeeper
playing his first game this season, Ant Glover. It took LR 20 minutes to really
get going and they sustained a fair amount of pressure whilst managing to
restrict the Home side to the single goal. Gradually the LR team began to look
more cohesive despite the imbalance caused by playing four central midfield
players and began to string better passing movements together. After
23minutes they went level with an excellent half volley after a half cleared
corner from another youngster, 16 year old Andy Gillespie.
New signing Bellis tested the the home goal with a number of good strikes and LR
finished the first half on top.
Half Time saw just one change with Ben Hyde unfortunately sustaining an ankle
injury meaning the introduction of third new signing Tilley who immediately
livened things up with a couple of challenges which resulted in a long chat from
the ever excellent Ref John Leech.
Second half saw LR playing uphill with the wind in their faces and it was
apparent that our lack of match practice was going to be the telling factor as
players visibly tired and after 61 minutes Padiham netted what was to be the
eventual winner, breaking through on the right and evading a last gasp tackle
from the hardworking Kania .
A late curling dipping free kick from Bellis deceived the home GK but struck the
bar and that was to be the final chance although LR did finish strongly after
changing to a 3- 5- 2 formation to get more going forward.
The MOM as given by the Home captain was Ash Elliot
The general plus points for me were the effort , commitment and team spirit a
side that in some cases had never met each other never mind played together, but
special mention to Wayne Gore at left back for a solid performance. Mention also
for great leadership qualities shown by captain Ryan Taylor in pulling the lads
together on the pitch and setting the right example. Thanks also to Chris
Brinksman for helping out with GK on the day.
Obviously a defeat is not the right result and we must improve individually and
collectively if we want to start moving up the table and putting a side together
which can provide both a challenge for first team places and honours but we
needed the game to restart the season
Team Ant Glover, James Appleton, Ryan Taylor , Karl McDonald, Wayne
Gore, Chris Lowe, Ash Elliot, Nick Kania , Ben Hyde, Graham Bellis. Andy
Gillespie
Subs Paul Tilley Ste Latham, David Hill, Chris Brinksman