Padiham v AFC Liverpool, 7th August 2021

Amazingly in 13 years of AFC Liverpool I had never quite been able to make it to an away game at Padiham before. A few years previous I did make the drive to a midweek game, only to arrive at the ground to be told it was off due to an accident on the M6 which had affected our team arriving that night. The same night Runcorn Town's match was called off at Barnoldswick.

This time around my attendance (and that of Peter Garrity) was put into a little bit of doubt by dodgy instructions I was taking from google maps. My sat nav had failed a few weeks earlier, and I hadn't got round to replacing it. After getting lost in Haslingden, and Peter asking for rough directions in a shop, low and behold I discovered that google maps on my phone had an in-built sat nav that could give me directions as I drive! That was bloody amazing!
Peter and I got to the ground with about 10 minutes to spare, and it was the home side who took the lead on 18 minutes. Padiham could have gone further ahead a few minutes later as their right back was played in on the right. Thankfully his cross went totally wayward. It wasn't all one way traffic, as a Brad Owens cross found Dan Cockerline just outside the 6 yard box. He headed it down well enough only to be denied by the keeper. 
Although it was really a 50/50 game, the home side struck again a few minutes before the break following a defensive error. We then had another close effort we could not convert. This time a defender was on hand to knock it off the line.
Whilst we could analyse that first half and say it could have been different had we taken our chances, it was still frustrating as we had not played as well as we knew we were capable of.  The frustration was shared amongst a few supporters.
We certainly upped our game in the second half following a substitution and change in formation. But when one pretty harmless effort was deflected just wide by a Padiham defender, it seemed that it was destined to be one of those days for us. How wrong I was. Dan Cockerline scrambled home our first goal from the resulting corner.
Substitute Billy McCarthy then came on for Jessie Dowling, who probably hadn't shown enough on the day. Within a few minutes he had a spectacular shot from just outside the box coming inside which hit the frame of post and crossbar. We were not going to be denied for long, as a Paul Speed lob restored parity and there was still 15 minutes or so to go.
The second half had been largely one way traffic, but the AFC faithful knew this would not guarantee this would see us complete the turnaround to win the tie. I just had that feeling the home side would suddenly find something and snatch it. This was especially so after Kyle Schorah was played though with a few minutes to go and his effort came back off the post. There was also a half penalty shout. I was convinced the lineswoman was trying to get the ref's attention to award us a penalty. How wrong I was.
Then we did win it with a low Kyle Schorah shot which led to ecstatic scenes amongst the AFC Liverpool supporters. It was well deserved for a superb second half performance. Padiham's keeper got a good round of applause from our support, and he quickly acknowledged we had deserved it.

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