Irlam v AFC Liverpool, 13th November 2021

Walking through the turnstile, I reflected on a tweet from Mr Chairman who had just parked up before me. He had no prior recollection of coming here on a Saturday afternoon, just midweek games. I think my recollection was the same. On the pitch we had lost our previous three games, including a 2-1 midweek defeat by the Macclesfield money bags where we gave a good account of ourselves. We were still waiting a first clean sheet of the season. Despite starting the game in 9th place, Irlam had lost 4 on the trot.

We started ok. It looked like an afternoon where we could create chances. Of late we had certainly missed an out and out striker. Anthony Lyons had been struggling with fitness. He had only made 5 substitute appearances before this game, although he had looked a bit sharper in his cameo against Macclesfield the previous midweek. It was good to have Lyonsy in the starting line up for the first time that season.

Irlam had one dangerous attack down their left which produced a cross. The clearance by one of our defenders could have gone anywhere. For our part Callum Schorah had two efforts which went narrowly wide. It was Callum who was found in space on the left hand side on 21 minutes. His cross found Anthony Lyons to power home a header at the near post, and that was 1-0. For the rest of the first half both sides looked dangerous in patches without creating a great deal.

Within 3 minutes of the restart, a Callum Schorah strike doubled the Reds' money. He took it well. Then a bizarre chant from Alan Harrison followed. It wasn't "Chris Ando's Red and White Army"! No idea where "Steve Ando" came from!

Irlam had opportunities to get back in the game. They had a couple of efforts blocked or cleared off the line, and another parried out by Jack McGovern. Out of nothing Anthony Lyons was presented with an open goal by a wayward pass from an Irlam defender. Somehow Lyonsy didn't catch it right and it bubbled wide.

The match was settled on 75 minutes as Callum received a ball lobbed into the box. He took it past the keeper for a simple tap in. Kenny had been in the bar at the start of the second half and had missed Callum's earlier goal. He only missed Callum's second as well. He went to the bar this time with one of the Irlam supporters. Kenny didn't half get a bit of stick for this.

The scoring was completed five minutes from time as Olly Sanderson-Rigby dispossessed an Irlam defender before firing into the net. A couple of minutes later Billy "Whiz" McCarthy nearly made it 5-0 with a rattling effort against the crossbar.

We had to make do with four. But we had our first clean sheet of the season. That meant Steve Fraser's Conga to mark the occasion. Jake Redmond joined him, and so did I!

Irlam were a capable side on a bad run. In fact the way we had defended in some previous games, we could have faced them on another day and been turned over. They had some nice people in their club. They joined the North West Counties League at the same time as us in 2008, and a message in the programme from the Secretary spoke of that link to 2008. The announcement over the tannoy before kick off welcomed us back after a few seasons of not being in the same league. Very nice indeed.