New Mills V AFC Liverpool, 10th September 2016

As I arrived in New Mills, I went to a Town Centre Pub for a pint of Real Ale.  I watched the last half hour of Manchester City's 2-1 win at Old Trafford in the Manchester Derby. 

AFC got off to a perfect start when a Jason Carey strike put us into the lead on 2 minutes.  It seemed that the home side (who had only managed 3 points for the whole previous campaign in the Evo-Stik First Division North) were there for the taking.

It was a beautiful strike by Carey into the corner.  However, for the Goal Of The Day competition which was to follow, that strike would have been in third place for me.

The second goal by Freddy Champion saw him bring the ball inside from the left, and unleash an unstoppable shot from about 25 yards that sailed into the roof of the net.  The third goal after the break by Paul Speed was one of those top corner beauties, also from outside the area, which was my winner of that day's Goal Of The Day!

The strange thing was that the game had in another sense been a lot closer than it had seemed in those first few minutes.  New Mills had suggested that they could get back into things before the Champion second goal.  Also, they were very much showing more purpose after the break.

Their number 10 was giving Kieron Brislen all sorts of problems.  It was he who won them the penalty from which they reduced the arrears to give the scoreline a fairer picture.  When Number 10 was taken off, the Rattlers and Vice-Chairman Alan Harrison were delighted, and 3-1 to the Reds was how it ended.


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