AFC Liverpool v Irlam, 2nd November 2016

 It was a very sad night. Club Photographer Dave Williams had been down earlier in the evening with the bad news that his Dad Alan had just passed away the previous Monday.  Things would never be the same again from a rattling point of view, and for the club as a whole. 

 

I was on the turnstile, at one point selling programmes, and golden goal tickets.  I was in shock, it wasn't pleasant, but of course the show had to go on.

 

A lot of the first half went by in a blur.  Then Alan Harrison ordered myself and Dave (the other rattler) to do one minute's rattling just after the half hour mark.  We had a couple of younger rattlers who were joining in.  

 

A minute or so later, Irlam were 1-0 up.  Thankfully, Mini Adegbenro equalised just before half time.  As I said, much of the first half passed in a blur.  One point I can say about the first half is that Mini had been having a stinker up until the point that the Irlam defence was split open for him to be played in to equalise.

 

Within a few minutes of the restart Mini had struck again.  He had been initially played through, and had made a bit of a meal of it.  But when the ball came back to him after an Irlam tackle, he could hardly miss.

 

With the scores at 2-1, Irlam predictably came back at us and had good spells, whilst we were also still looking dangerous on the break.  

 

Dave was commenting on how we were hanging on.  I was not expecting it to remain 2-1 as a couple of late substitutions saw a half fit Franny Smith replace Marvin Molyneaux, and Jason Carey replace Mini.

 

Irlam got awarded a freekick in the 86th minute in a very dangerous position not that far out.  It was a brilliant freekick, they were level, and Dave predicted we may now lose 3-2.

 

In fact, that goal galvanised the men in red.  Dimitri Christou brought the ball forward about 30 yards out, unleashed a shot that hit the upright and bounced out to Jason Carey in an offside position.  Carey still missed anyway.

 

But that was not the final word, as Jason Carey picked the ball up in an inside left position, found a yard or two of space in brushing off a defender or two, before unleashing an unstoppable shot past the keeper.  Boy, would Alan Williams have loved that!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abbey Hey v AFC Liverpool, 16th September 2017

I was accompanied for this match by Kevin, my friend of many years. We met other supporters in the club house, including Dave The Rattler and the two Chesterfield lads (who are mates of Steve Fraser). On the pitch, we got off to the best possible start. Debutant George Lomax stabbed home from close range, after Joe Whittington had played the ball across the area to keep the ball alive from a corner. For the first twenty minutes we were in complete control. We could have scored a second when a shot was diverted away unconvincingly by the keeper, and just narrowly went wide. Along with Steve, Dave, and the Chesterfield lads, we were stood behind the goal we were attacking in the first half. On a couple of occasions, I played ballboy. Much to the amusement of everyone behind that goal, I tried a spin of the ball with my feet! But then, the home side came back into it. They moved through the left side of our defence with ease, and shot against Jack Cookson's left hand post. The respite...
Read more

AFC Liverpool v Wythenshawe, 19th December 2023

Exactly a week earlier we lost 5-0 at home against lowly Burscough. It was in fact our second 5-0 home defeat of the season having lost against Lower Breck in the FA Cup back in August. Wythenshawe, who had never been relegated in their history, were playing at this level for the first time. They were also the surprise League Leaders ahead of Bury. Following on from the Burscough defeat, we had also lost 3-0 at Pilkington on the Saturday. Rather predictably the early phase of the game was very much about staying in the game. It was heartening to see the lads showing an endeavour to battle. As the early minutes clocked up without much Wythenshawe threat and a clean sheet intact, the more our supporters began to believe we could perhaps nick a draw. Around the 15 minute mark one of our boys was down injured. But the visitors carried on playing, which did not go down too well. Five minutes later a misplaced back pass from a Wythenshawe defender was collected by Billy "Whiz" McCa...
Read more

AFC Liverpool v Morecambe, 26th July 2012

After leaving Valerie Park following our 4-3 pre-season victory over Morecambe, I got a text off my brother in Northampton who had been aware of the scoreline from good old Sky Sports News.  He suggested it must have been a bit of a ding dong game.  Well, not exactly. Two well taken first half goals from Franny Barry gave the Reds a 2-0 half time lead, following an earlier tame shot with his weaker left foot which was saved by the Morecambe keeper.  Steve Williams was particularly influential in the first goal, playing a one two with John Lawless, before Barry was able to pounce to the loose ball and slot home.  The second was a stunning strike cum volley, which I felt had shades of Marco Van Basten in Euro 88. Morecambe did miss a few chances at the other end, including one effort which forced a goal-line clearance.  Of equal significance, the Reds were denied a third as Lee Madin was denied by the Morecambe keeper's fingertips. Their number 10 was put through ...
Read more