AFC Liverpool v Abbey Hey, 30th March 2011


Going into our midweek game at home to Abbey Hey at the end of March 2011, my feelings were that the next six matches were winnable. The 1-0 defeat at Chadderton the previous Saturday saw us drop to fourth in the table, with Chadderton leapfrogging us into third place.

The Abbey Hey match was a game we still had in hand over Chaddy. Indeed, I still felt that achieving promotion was still not totally impossible. The two front runners AFC Blackpool and Runcorn Town were due to face each other the following weekend. When I say I that I felt promotion was not totally impossible, I believed that if we were to win the next six matches, then we could still have found the promotion door slightly ajar when we were due to face Runcorn Town at the Pavilions on Easter Monday.

AFC did not get out of the blocks at all during the first half, with no real efforts of note at the Abbey Hey goal. The visitors threatened our goal on at least a couple of occasions. Their number 9 Sam Jones turned past Conor Murphy with ease before running in on our goal. Fortunately for the Reds, Jones shot into the side netting and Michael Christopher was not even tested.

On the stroke of half time, their number 4 was up in an advanced position in our box. From a left-wing cross, he managed to make contact and hit our crossbar. The visitors were to hit our woodwork again in the second half as a shot from about 25 yards had Michael Christopher beaten all ends up.

We were though a bit better in the second half, and got the decisive break after a Darren Torpey cross had been charged down. David Mather beat their man to the loose ball, got clipped and we were awarded a penalty. The penalty was subsequently despatched by Steve Corris. Ironically, what had seemed like a fair shout for a penalty earlier on got waved away, after Shaun Chart went down in their area.

With a 1-0 lead, hopefully we would push on. But we were still far from convincing, and there were occasions when we could not clear our lines properly deep inside our own half. That said, hold on to the three points we did. And this was despite being second best for long periods. If my feelings about a resurrection of promotion prospects were to come true, I felt that a much better performance would be required in the matches that were to follow.

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