AFC Liverpool from Yesteryear

The least said about the first half the better.   In a half in which we showed absolutely nothing going forward, Cheadle should have been three or four goals to the good.   The only positive I could see was a couple of instances in which an AFC defender would put their body on the line to thwart a Cheadle chance. I did at one point send a tweet about the state of affairs.   Over in Barcelona, Steve Fraser tweeted back that it was not exactly what he wished to hear, considering this team had also dumped us out of a cup competition the previous season.   He suggested that myself and the other rattlers should rattle louder!   Unfortunately, my twitter skills were in their infancy at this point in time, and I was not aware of Steve's reply until after the match. Luckily this match did prove to be a game of two halves.   Although Cheadle came out and appeared to continue where they left off by creating an early second half chance, the second half largel...

For this AFC Liverpool from Yesteryear post, we look back to April 2010 and the beginning of the Paul Moore era. Mooresy’s first home match (as Caretaker Manager) was against AFC Blackpool in the Semi-Final of the First Division Trophy. AFC Liverpool had started the Paul Moore era off with a win at Leek CSOB the previous Saturday.   As I had not made that particular trip, the First Division Trophy Semi-Final against AFC Blackpool was to be my first taste of life under Mooresy as Manager.   On my walk from Prescot Station to Valerie Park Stadium, I ended up unexpectedly talking to a Prescotian about AFC Liverpool and why I supported them.   The fella initially spotted my red scarf and was quite impressed, only to question what AFC Liverpool is all about when he realised why I was in Prescot.   To be fair to him though, he did listen.   He told me that he watched the Cables fairly regularly, but had also made the odd visit to Valerie and watch the non-lea...

On the turnstile before the match, I asked this chap wanting to get through if he had paid.   As it turned out, the proud bloke was Steve Wilkes, the Manager of Padiham. It was a fairly even first half, with Jack Leamey the main outlet for the Reds.   We had a few efforts at Padiham's goal, but they were all pretty much straight at their keeper. It was the visitors though who had the two best chances of the first half, which both fell to James Dean their number 9.   I was later informed by Marine AFC's Community Officer that Dean had previously played at FC Halifax with a certain Jamie Vardy.   Both efforts went wide. The first half was held up for several minutes as Padiham's Centre-Half and Goalkeeper clashed.   It left the defender needing urgent attention to his head.   Unfortunately, he was unable to continue. One farce out of that unfortunate incident is that the referee did not give the Reds a corner, after the ball did go out off the two ...

Having a mild allegiance to Warrington's Rugby League team, I did have one eye on how the Wire were doing against Leeds Rhinos in the Challenge Cup Final.   That said, there was never any serious doubt that I would be at Valerie Park (in Prescot) watching AFC Liverpool take on Oldham Boro in a re-arranged First Division match following both sides' FA Cup exit.   Despite AFC having the best of the early exchanges, it was the visitors who took the lead against the run of play.   Oldham could in fact have gone 2-0 up, but thankfully clipped the top of Paul Willis's bar instead. We did recover and a clever lob from Aaron Stafford (or possible Steve Jones) nearly embarrassed Oldham's keeper who was stranded.   We did get back on terms in the first half through Aaron Stafford, and the same player struck again early in the second half to put us in front. After getting our noses in front, we continued to dominate.   Oldham's keeper kept it at 2-1 for a long tim...