AFC Liverpool v Glossop North End, 13th April 2024

It was the final home game of the season. And following a summer of upheaval when previous Manager Matt Potter had decided to move on to what he may have seen as bigger things at Skem Utd, there were signs that we were at the beginning of a new cycle. Barring the previous Saturday's defeat at Bury we had been in good form. Four points from our final two games against Glossop at the MTA and at FC Isle of Man the following Saturday would see us achieve 60 points. In his first season, Phil Stafford had done a marvellous job. Had anyone back in August offered me 50 points, let alone 60, I would have gladly accepted. I think most of our fans would have done.

Just after the half hour mark a flick on from a corner found Dr Adam Moorcroft who smashed it home to give us the lead. Just before the half hour mark, Glossop should have been level following a bizarre series of events. Goalkeeper David Parkinson firstly got penalised for picking the ball up, and it was interpreted as a back pass. Glossop quickly took a free kick, and squared it to a fella who had an open goal, only for him to hit our post!


Both sides had chances. Adam Moorcroft could so easily have got a second before that Glossop chance where they hit the side netting. But he had the angle against him and hit the side netting, after taking it past the keeper. I think a lot of our people felt we may have on balance done enough to be 2-0 up at half time. But we weren't.


Nine minutes after the break, a fluke cross-cum-shot from Luke Porter made it 2-0. Peter Garrity came with me to this game, after I picked him up from Newton Le Willows. Peter was very impressed indeed with Luke. But as soon as we had put a bit of daylight between us and Glossop, the visitors went up the other end and pulled one back.


We stepped it up, and asserted our dominance. But for much of the second half we just could not kill the game off. Their keeper had made a number of saves throughout the afternoon, but was fortunate that his parrying did not fall to an oncoming forward to slot into an empty net. 


Captain Tom Croughan had not had the best of games. He had not been as strong at holding the ball up as usual. But he held off a defender following a through ball, before slotting it underneath the keeper. At 3-1 that surely would be that. Indeed a couple of minutes later substitute Sonny Reeves had an effort which produced a superb save. 


Deep into stoppage time, Glossop did get another back to make the scoreline give the impression that the game was a lot closer than it really was. Thankfully, there was no further drama, and we were on 59 points with our final match in the Isle of Man to go.

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