AFC Liverpool from Yesteryear

Winsford had been in a rich vein of form, unbeaten in 7 matches.  It was the visitors who had much the better of the first half.  However, it was the home side who took the lead very much against the run of play. It was a free kick over the wall by recent signing Conor Smith. Although a couple of supporters and I had mistook Conor for Jack Leamy on his wrong right foot. Winsford's best chance of the first half came as their no 10 was one on one with Dominic Garner. He was denied by Dom, and the ball rebounded off the Winsford player for a goal kick. The main talking point of the first half was the sending off of Reds Midfielder Franny Smith. He went for a ball I think he certainly had a right to go for, but mistimed his tackle very horribly.  The referee acted very quickly to give Franny his marching orders. The second half started and the early signs were that AFC would have their backs against the wall, being down to ten men. Winsford carved out a gilt edged chance whic...

This was the first time I made the trip to Norton and it is a trip I will always remember as one of quite a few that was characterised by naff internet directions to the ground from the railway station.  At one point I thought I was really going to struggle to find the ground.  That was when I asked a Police Community Support Officer on where to find Norton United FC.  The Officer replied in his West Midlands accent, in a manner to suggest that he had never heard of it. Thankfully after giving some brief information from my directions to his female colleague, I did manage to make my way to Community Drive in the Smallthorne distruct of Stoke-On-Trent.   Walking across the car park, I saw none other than Paul who did the filming for our games in those days, and later became Reds Review Programme Editor. He kindly offered me a lift back to Longport Station at the end of the match. The first half was pretty even before Andy McCoy put us ahead just after the half hour wi...

After a delayed Kick Off to 8PM, John Lawless's debut match got under way with the high flying visitors on the offensive.  I will confess that I had heard a few not so positive things about our new signing.  But in terms of his footballing ability, I understood that he had good ability on the field of play. He had after all been on Liverpool's books once upon a time. After a spell with us penned back and defending deep, we went up the other end.  And guess what?  It was that man Lawless who headed home, leaving the Rammy keeper stranded.  We did play some good stuff in the first half.  Although, we were probably not as dominant as we had been against Squires Gate a few days previously. Steve Jones scored a second with a wonderful shot from the edge of the area.  And we really should have gone in 3-0 at half time, as Franny Barry got in behind their keeper who had misjudged a bounce.  But the shot Franny got away was w...