Ashton Athletic v AFC Liverpool, 22nd April 2017

The backdrop to this match was the Chairman, Secretary, Steward Craig, and Steve Fraser walking 14 miles to get to Brocstedes Park, raising funds for the club and Liverpool Homeless FC.

 

Much of the early running was done by AFC Liverpool, creating about 4 decent chances.  Unfortunately, Mini's touch was not quite good enough at times.

 

In the middle of those AFC efforts, Athletic struck with a daisy cutter from distance which found its way into the bottom corner of Dom Garner's net.  That was after five minutes.

 

When Athletic scored their second on 27 mins, it was a cross cum shot which found its way into the corner, raising questions on Dom Garner's positioning.

 

Their only other sniff of goal in the first half came courtesy of our keeper, as he gave the ball away from a throw.  Ashton almost took advantage, but thankfully Dom Garner was able to smother.

 

Without a win in 5 matches, it was frustrating to find ourselves two goals down in a match we probably should have been winning.  Dave The Rattler and I engaged in conversation with a chap from the Ashton club, who informed us that their side had five players missing.  Plus, they had one lad who had been brought out of retirement!

 

The second half continued in much the same vein, with us dominating in our wheelie bin kit, and further chances for the hosts very few.

 

It was not until the 71st minute that substitute Connor Grainger headed us back into it.  About 6 minutes later, a poor clearance from their keeper was charged down by Mini Adegbenro, who then proceeded to equalise.  The funny thing was the keeper had done something similar during our early good spells, but got away with it.


There were two moments of controversy in the later stages, which I have to say were associated with our team.  The first of those saw our players carry on playing after one of their players was down injured.  We were all shouting for our players to kick it out, and I have to say I was a bit embarrassed the play only stopped after their defender tackled and cleared it out.

 

The other incident saw Franny Smith get booked for a dangerous tackle not too dissimilar to one which got him sent off a few months earlier at home to Winsford.  This time it was a yellow, and the Ashton chap from earlier felt it was the right decision.  When I mentioned the Winsford incident, the Ashton chap felt it was very much a case that different refs will sometimes view things differently.

 

All in all, a good match.  I feel we were well worth the point.

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