Winsford United v AFC Liverpool, 18th August 2012

When Lee Madin scored his first AFC Liverpool goal inside the first 10 minutes, it all looked so promising.  Madin scored following a Winsford defensive error, and the keeper failing to hold onto a John Lawless shot.  The Winsford announcer credited the goal to Lawless in error.

But fast forward an hour and a half later, and the final scoreline was Winsford United 8 AFC Liverpool 1.  I believe it is one of those days when it is important to remember that in life and in football, you certainly have to take the rough with the smooth.  This dramatic reversal happened  as a result of a performance which exposed weaknesses across the team that day. 

Following on from the midweek home defeat by Maine Road, Steve Williams' creativity was missing once more.  The AFC defence seemed completely rudderless.  That said, Paul Moore did admit the following day on the forum that he did have to pick a back four entirely of midfielders, due to others being unavailable.  I recall that for one of the Winsford goals, a Steve Corris back-pass got intercepted.  But you certainly can't make one man a scapegoat. 

So on a bad day like that when your team was inept throughout, it was very difficult to find any positive note.  It was also very easy in the heat of the moment to question if any of the team were up to it.  The real rub in I suppose was Wayne Wellbeck (the brother of Man Utd's Danny) scoring a couple of Winsford's later goals.  This was after coming on as a substitute, and missing a couple of gilt edged chances with the score at 4-1 or 5-1.  Not a good day at all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abbey Hey v AFC Liverpool, 16th September 2017

I was accompanied for this match by Kevin, my friend of many years. We met other supporters in the club house, including Dave The Rattler and the two Chesterfield lads (who are mates of Steve Fraser). On the pitch, we got off to the best possible start. Debutant George Lomax stabbed home from close range, after Joe Whittington had played the ball across the area to keep the ball alive from a corner. For the first twenty minutes we were in complete control. We could have scored a second when a shot was diverted away unconvincingly by the keeper, and just narrowly went wide. Along with Steve, Dave, and the Chesterfield lads, we were stood behind the goal we were attacking in the first half. On a couple of occasions, I played ballboy. Much to the amusement of everyone behind that goal, I tried a spin of the ball with my feet! But then, the home side came back into it. They moved through the left side of our defence with ease, and shot against Jack Cookson's left hand post. The respite...
Read more

AFC Liverpool v Wythenshawe, 19th December 2023

Exactly a week earlier we lost 5-0 at home against lowly Burscough. It was in fact our second 5-0 home defeat of the season having lost against Lower Breck in the FA Cup back in August. Wythenshawe, who had never been relegated in their history, were playing at this level for the first time. They were also the surprise League Leaders ahead of Bury. Following on from the Burscough defeat, we had also lost 3-0 at Pilkington on the Saturday. Rather predictably the early phase of the game was very much about staying in the game. It was heartening to see the lads showing an endeavour to battle. As the early minutes clocked up without much Wythenshawe threat and a clean sheet intact, the more our supporters began to believe we could perhaps nick a draw. Around the 15 minute mark one of our boys was down injured. But the visitors carried on playing, which did not go down too well. Five minutes later a misplaced back pass from a Wythenshawe defender was collected by Billy "Whiz" McCa...
Read more

AFC Liverpool v Morecambe, 26th July 2012

After leaving Valerie Park following our 4-3 pre-season victory over Morecambe, I got a text off my brother in Northampton who had been aware of the scoreline from good old Sky Sports News.  He suggested it must have been a bit of a ding dong game.  Well, not exactly. Two well taken first half goals from Franny Barry gave the Reds a 2-0 half time lead, following an earlier tame shot with his weaker left foot which was saved by the Morecambe keeper.  Steve Williams was particularly influential in the first goal, playing a one two with John Lawless, before Barry was able to pounce to the loose ball and slot home.  The second was a stunning strike cum volley, which I felt had shades of Marco Van Basten in Euro 88. Morecambe did miss a few chances at the other end, including one effort which forced a goal-line clearance.  Of equal significance, the Reds were denied a third as Lee Madin was denied by the Morecambe keeper's fingertips. Their number 10 was put through ...
Read more