Bacup & Rossendale Borough v AFC Liverpool, 19th October 2013

My first visit to the valley (as they said in the matchday programme) took 2 trains and a bus ride via Preston and Burnley.  I had my directions written down on how to get to the ground.  When I saw the ground signposted as the bus arrived in Bacup, those instructions were confined to the dustbin.I found a pub by the side of the turn-off to the Cowtoot Lane Ground.  It was a bit of a bummer to find no Real Ale, despite the sign outside suggesting the contrary.  It did have Newcastle v Liverpool on the box though.  As the match progressed, Kenny appeared.  Frank and Dave followed in soon afterwards.Newcastle v Liverpool ended 2-2, and it was time to head to Cowtoot Lane up a steep hill for Bacup and Rossendale Borough v AFC Liverpool.  Despite AFC having a few decent attempts from distance, a scrappy first half ensued.  The main highlights were off the field really, as a couple of naughty kids kept complaining about the rattles, despite making their own racket by messing with the seats in the stand.The antics of those kids was nothing compared to some woman who was selling Bacup's lottery tickets.  She suggested that we were making excessive noise, and that we should move over to the other side of the ground.  An exchange of views followed with Dave and Alan, who were simply trying to have banter about it.  Unfortunately the woman referred to my two rattling colleagues as being sarcastic, and she even threatened to throw us out!Pat Cushion (who was then AFC's Secretary) intervened to defuse the situation.  Whilst she did suggest we should not entertain any form of conversation with the woman, it later emerged that she was not someone that special in the Bacup hierarchy anyway! A few minutes after that situation calmed down, Ryan Cox raced onto a through ball to fire the Reds into the lead just before half time.  We did indeed move to the other side of the ground for the second half.  One local guy who we came across, echoed the reality that other people sat in the stand were in no way supportive of that ridiculous specimen of a woman!Bacup did indeed raise their game in the second half, without creating much.  That was until Ronnie Morgan tried to play too much in a dangerous position.  When he should have booted the ball into a farmer's field, he got dispossessed.  Bacup forced a corner, which they subsequently equalised from.Thankfully Ronnie Morgan was able to atone for his error by first winning a penalty, and then scoring it to cap an eventful day.  A Bacup Central Defender was sent off for arguing over the penalty decision.  I am sure it was the same player who was attentive when Danny Donut was down injured a few minutes earlier.  The Bacup player commented that he doesn't speak Scouse.  We replied that he was in fact Romanian!

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