AFC Liverpool v Stockport Sports, 20th April 2013

The Reds were minutes away from taking all three points, courtesy of substitute John Lawless's first touches. This was after picking the ball up following some indecisive Stockport defending.

Prior to taking the lead, it was a match in which we rarely looked like losing. Daniel Hand got into some promising positions down the right on a few occasions. And it was that same player who had our best first half opportunity, missing a one on one following a good link up with Steve Jones.

By the time the visitors equalised late on, the match had started to turn a bit nasty. This was in part due to a few bookings there had been. 

The Stockport equaliser was from a penalty, won by a player who had come on as a substitute. He was a very big lad, built like a Rugby player from the South Pacific. A couple of minutes before the penalty incident, he nearly rubbed everyone up the wrong way. The ball was given to him from a throw-in following a stoppage, for him to play it back to us. Instead he tried to score!

After earning the penalty to deprive us of three points, this same player nearly earned his side another penalty deep into stoppage time. Thankfully though we did survive that scare.

Despite the disappointment of not winning, and of the match ending on a bit of a low note, it was important to put things into context. The squad was once again down to the bare bones, with Paul Moore and Dave Innelli once again named amongst the AFC substitutes.

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