Another defeat sees Linnets slip further into relegation trouble
BURSCOUGH went very close to picking up at least an unexpected valuable bonus point from their Friday night trip to play the big supported City of Liverpool.
After equalising twice and arguably having most of the possession in the second-half they frustratingly the Linnets went down to a goal in the last ten minutes and even then almost levelled in added time.
A crowd of 431 greeted the teams and much was expected of the hosts and they soon put the pressure on Burscough, going close inside two minutes when Linnets goalkeeper Josh Samberg swiftly dived to his right to keep out an Anthony Brown header.
The pressure continued and COL struck in the fifth minute with an excellent strike low into the bottom corner of the Linnets net, a tidy build-up down the right that had Luke Denson at its heart put the ball to David Forbes feet on the eighteen yard line, the centre-forward netted with his left-foot.
Burscough equalised when Chad Whyte pounced on some hesitancy in the home defence in the 14th minute, Terry Cummings ran into space on the right and sent a cross into the 18 yard box, Whyte went after it and as one defender left it for the other, that was all Whyte needed and he lifted the ball over goalkeeper Ben Ascroft for his 39th goal of the season.
Within in a minute COL almost scored but Samberg left his line to pull off a tremendous save.
The rest of the half saw the hosts dominate most of the possession but they were not finding it easy to open Burscough up.
The nearest they came was when John Connolly got in but Samberg sharply saved at the striker’s feet and later on when Forbes had a goal disallowed, seemingly for offside.
At the other end Whyte put a header from a corner just off target and Prince Expolo almost caught keeper Ascroft out as his cross landed on the roof of the net.
It was exactly a minute into added time when COL retook the lead.
Forbes held the ball up well and it was released to the highly mobile Jack Hazelhurst, he switched feet and fired low into the Burscough goal.
Burscough bounced out after the restart and within a minute Whyte headed fractionally over the angle of bar and post from a corner.
In the 48th minute Burscough were awarded a free-kick and Jamie Clark lined it up, however, instead of his usual power strike he delicately floated the ball over the home defence, Whyte ran onto it and headed home the second Linnets equaliser and personal goal number 40.
It was now up for grabs and Burscough were at least matching COL.
In the 57th minute the livewire Hazelhurst had one cleared off the line then Burscough went onto the attack and in the 64th minute Prince Ekpolo set off on a determined run, past two men and shrugging off another he entered the penalty area from the left, the next challenge on him was late, but instead of falling over he staggered on his shot going over the crossbar. Many players would have gone to ground and had a justifiable plea for a penalty.
In the 70th minute Samberg made a double save from Francis Smith, then in the 76th minute loud appeals for a Linnets penalty were turned away by referee Lewis Smith, Cummings suffering a tackle from behind, the ball went straight up the end and Burscough captain Danny Brady cleared off the line. It was thrilling stuff.
In the 79th minute COL keeper Ascroft only kept out Josh Dunroe with a full length dive. Two minutes later COL won a corner on the left, the ball went to the far post, Luke Denson ran in unmarked and had a simple task of putting Burscough 3-2 down.
Burscough pressed and the hosts defended, Burscough almost grabbed an equaliser, Whyte agonisingly couldn’t reach a Cummings cross with the best of the Linnets attacks.
Then two minutes into added time Clark sent in a corner from the right, it was going into the net at shoulder height, but Ascroft managed to scramble the ball away.
The scoreline will say that Burscough were beaten, but they could say that they had been unlucky to do so.