AFC Liverpool v Longridge Town, 8th February 2023

A routine night around the turnstile area started with Vice-Chair Greg Armstrong tripping over a carpet of all things. Now you may wonder what a carpet was doing there, but that is another story.

After I vacated my turnstile duties, I was caught chatting with George Marsh about the gate money, as Billy "Whiz" McCarthy struck to put us 1-0 up on 18 minutes. Soon enough I got to the Crossender Road End, and Billy found himself running at the Longridge defence, before letting fly from 20 yards, to fly in. This was on 24 minutes. Then three minutes later Mark Madden slid in to beat the keeper to a loose ball and make it 3-0. Myself, Steve Fraser and Chris Dace were talking about which player may score a hat-trick. We really did look very dominant.
But then the game changed. There was an incident where Tom Douglas was judged to have made a serious foul, when it was questionable he had even committed a foul. He was sent to the sin bin. Arguably, controversially so, after an intervention from a member of the Longridge Coaching staff in a bobble hat. The game then became very much about protecting our three goal lead. That we did, as Tom returned to the field in injury time.
After the restart, it was a little bit end to end. The Reds had opportunities to increase the lead. Billy Whiz twice went for the hat-trick. One effort from 20 yards again curled just wide. He soon had another go. That second attempt, he probably should have passed it.
Manager Matt Potter made a few substitutions, as we looked comfortable once more. But then just after the 70 minute mark, the visitors scored twice in the space of about three minutes. We were very much in danger of throwing away a match we were comfortably in control of at one point. 


Thankfully we got our act together. Longridge rarely troubled us in the closing stages as the introduction of Scott Evans into Midfield at the expense of striker Mark Madden helped make us a bit more solid in the Midfield area. We saw this game of two halves out, to take us to 56 points, and just 15 points away from achieving our best ever points total for a season.

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