Padiham v AFC Liverpool, 4th September 2021

After 13 years of following AFC Liverpool from the beginning,  I hadn't managed to make the trip to Padiham. That was until this season, when I managed to make 2 trips in the space of 4 weeks! The previous occasion saw the Non-league Reds overturn a 2-0 half time deficit to win 3-2 in the FA Cup extra preliminary round.

The league meeting 4 weeks on saw a few notable changes in personnel for both sides. We had Callum Schorah on the bench after returning from injury. We had a new goalkeeper who apparently hailed from nearby Blackburn and a new Australian centre-half (Thomas Scott & Alex Crocker). Steve Fraser was trying to come up with some new musical chant based on some musician called Tommy Scott!For their part, Padiham had  signed a new number 9 (Joel Brownhill). They also had a different keeper in than our last encounter, who liked to keep a tub of vaseline in his net!Like the FA Cup tie it was an even first half. But this time we weren't 2-0 down at half time. They had one effort deflected onto the outside of the upright by one of our defenders. We had a good effort which just flew wide from Jesse Dowling. Five minutes before the break Fidan Hajdari headed home to give us a halftime lead. With Padiham having the advantage of playing down the slope in the second half, it was likely to prove an important goal.Into the second half and playing uphill, we created one decent chance to extend our lead. A cross came in from the right across the Padiham six yard box, but just missed the onrushing Daniel Cockerline.With that miss was the game about to turn?  Well yes, but largely due to two mistakes from debutant keeper Thomas Scott. The first one saw him seemingly fail to deal with a routine ball he should have gathered or perhaps booted. The second one on 80 minutes saw him deceived by a bounce. Both goals were subsequently open goals. Later on the drive home, Peter Garrity suggested Steve Fraser may now be less inclined to give goalkeeper Thomas Scott a lovely chant. When a couple of the Padiham people were told of Scott's Blackburn connection, they were quite amused being close to Burnley.We did manage to rescue a point deep into stoppage time, as Dan Cockerline's free kick went over the wall and in. There had been quite a few recent games with late drama. These were certainly not boring times following the Non-league Reds. Had we drew level about five minutes earlier, I think we may have gone on to nick it, albeit undeservedly.

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