AFC Liverpool v Glossop North End, 22nd September 2012


The match build-up was poignant, with a presentation made to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign to mark the truth at Hillsborough finally being revealed.

We led 1-0 at half time courtesy of a Franny Barry goal, after he was played in by John Lawless.  That goal was in fact our first ever against the Derbyshire team.  But it was a miracle from Glossop's perspective that we were not at least four goals to the good at the break. 
We had a good early spell in which John Lawless hit the crossbar.  Another Glossop escape saw us get awarded a free kick on the edge of the box, when the foul may just have been committed inside the box.  On another day goalscoring hero Franny Barry would probably have scored a first half hat-trick!
John Lawless's early effort was not the only occasion we hit the Glossop woodwork during the opening period.  A similar story to the previous week at Askern Villa in the FA Vase was emerging. 
Although we ended up 3-1 winners on that occasion, the worry here and now was that Glossop were a stronger team than Askern.  That worry came true within ten minutes of the restart as the visitors had scored twice to turn the game on it's head.
The second half was ultimately defined by two incidents involving River Humphries.  The first incident saw River and Glossop's number 5 both booked, after it was their chap who was so blatantly blocking off River. 
The second was a few minutes from the end, when River got a second yellow card after a hard tackle in which I felt he actually won the ball.  That second yellow triggered a protest from our bench, resulting in Manager Paul Moore being dismissed.
Following on from the dismissal of River, we did nearly scramble a point from a game we should have won so easily.  I recall their keeper made an error from a set piece, and the ball went off one of our men, but the wrong side of the post.  I just could not believe how that game was not won by half time.
I was in conversation with Dave Williams' brother Graham in the gents after the match.  I mentioned to Graham about the chances we also missed the previous week at Askern. 
When I pointed out that we were today against much better opposition, a Glossop fan piped up that I would not have been saying that had I witnessed their 4-1 midweek loss at Winsford United.  On that note, I had to inform the gentleman that losing there by that scoreline made no difference to my assessment of his team.  After all, we lost 8-1 there a month earlier!

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