AFC Liverpool v Holker Old Boys, 17th January 2018


As Steve Fraser said a few times, you just had to feel for Holker. Coming down the M6 in bad weather that is. Different groups of players came in different cars. Steve was telling me that one trio of Holker players were the only group in the bar around 7.15pm. This trio were Manchester based.
Dry weather over the previous 24 hours helped ensure the League Cup tie was on this time, after 7 previous attempts were postponed. In the build up to the match, there was some speculation the kick off would be put back due to an accident on a Cumbrian A Road. The game did though kick off more or less on time.
After going one up within 9 minutes, a silly back pass let Holker back in to equalise. A Joe Whittington strike on 29 minutes saw us retain the advantage at half time.
The powerful Kev "The Beast" Edgar was an opponent Holker's defence were not relishing playing against. A strong start to the second half saw a goal from Danny Boden and put us in a 3-1 lead. Boden in fact made it 3-1 as myself and Steve Fraser were returning to join our former Centre-Half Allen “Weso” Weston in the Rattlestation (in the stand).
Steve was commenting that Big Kev Edgar was yet to score. Before the hour mark, not only had The Beast got on the scoreline, Leon Arnasalam also got in on the act to establish a commanding 5-1 lead.
A few minutes later, Holker got one back. This time, it was more to do with their own play, as a passage of play led to a fine shot beat Jack Cookson in his left hand corner. Danny Boden soon re-established the four goal cushion.
Two specific incidents I recall were two big misses at each end, which were irrelevant considering we were 5-2 up when our miss occurred, and 6-2 up when they missed a good opportunity from the penalty spot.
The miss for us was in fact a double miss. I think it was Danny Boden who broke into the box, and beat the keeper only to see the ball come back off the post. The rebound fell to The Beast, who miskicked!
We ended up winning the tie 7-2, with substitute Adam Weston completing the scoring with a speculative effort, which looped over their keeper. Weather wise though, it was a horrible night. It was a relief when the final whistle blew.

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