AFC Liverpool v Steeton, 19th November 2019

We were riding high. I think  we were 4th in the First Division North Table, and had been awarded the League's Club of the Month award the previous Saturday for the month of October. Steeton by contrast were rooted to the bottom of the league, they had recently been served notice by their landlords the Keighley Cougars Rugby League Club, and had lost 3-1 against the Reds 13 nights earlier in Keighley.

We had taken a 1-0 lead before I left the turnstile. Daniel Cockerline was the scorer. As I was walking up the steps to see Alan Harrison and was greeting him, my back was against the play, and suddenly Cockerline scored again! Only seven minutes were on the clock.


Alan in fact gave me some positive feedback on the quality of the previous Saturday's programme. The visitor was some bloke called Phil from the FA Factfile twitter site. Unfortunately I had been unable to attend that game (in the Macron Cup against Abbey Hulton United) due to working commitments. It was very satisfying to get some good recognition for the work myself and others like Greg do, from outside the club. Plus, that programme had been put together at 48 hours notice due to the match being twice postponed at Abbey Hulton.


I was able to see our third goal. Cockerline again had a hand in it. He took the ball down the right wing. His cross eventually found it's way to Jay McGrane who shot on the turn, and it went into the corner.


The visitors were showing few signs of getting into the game. One shot from outside the area was described sarcastically as a Rugby League effort, whilst another chance led to a free header in the six yard area. But, their fellas could not even test Lee Carr. They may at one stage have produced one effort which Lee Carr was able to gather with no problem.

The referee, who was a bit old, did at times struggle to keep up with play. Steeton's number 8 was described by Alan H and Greg to be a bit dirty. Plus, he had apparently been a bit niggly in the return fixture a fortnight earlier.


Within a minute of the restart Kyle Schorah had made it 4-0. Marc Stephens added a fifth, with a pass into the net which wrong footed the keeper. The sixth was his brother Luke who rose high from a corner. The keeper actually made a good effort, but could only parry it into the net.


The seventh was a deserved effort for Anthony Lyons, who powered through before hitting it into the top corner. Lyons had also gone close when he had just came on as a substitute for Kyle Schorah around the hour mark. Indeed, he ran at the defence for his earlier effort, and arguably putting a team mate in on the right may have been a better option. But, he is a striker after all.


A move down the left led to substitute Gerrard Courtney crossing for a second Jay McGrane goal, which made it 8-0. The Reds had amazingly scored 8 goals at home for the third consecutive league match, following an 8-0 victory over AFC Darwen and an 8-2 victory over Holker Old Boys. It was also a good reaction to title rivals (and local rivals) Lower Breck winning 6-0 the previous evening. And their keeper did make a few good saves as well to keep the score down!


I in fact left the game early because I didn't want to be on the last train home from Liverpool Southparkway around midnight, and was on an early the next day in training. Due to Steeton's long journey, this match had kicked off at 8pm. So, it was very unusual to hear Alan Harrison's voice (albeit very faintly) from the platform of Blundellsands Station at the final whistle. As soon as Alan had finished talking, I heard a dog bark in the more immediate neighbourhood. Oh, happy days.

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