Peters positive despite defeat

ABIGAIL LEIGH

BACUP Borough manager Brent Peters felt there were positives to take from his side despite their 3-0 loss at Oswestry on Saturday.

Peters’ men were unable to recover after the hosts raced into an early lead, but he insists there was good aspects on display.

“Going two goals down in the first six minutes meant the young team we currently have had to show character in order to stop a potential rout,” he said.

“I am pleased that despite the bad start, the boys settled down and there was very little to choose between both sides. In fairness to my team they gave me everything in order to restore some pride.

“I was impressed with Oswestry. They played very well within their team shape and the finish from their impressive captain Jack Harris was something special which Aaron Ashley had no chance of stopping.

“We were forced with mainly long range efforts onto their goal that were way off the target and the ones that did hit the target were no trouble for their goalkeeper Richard Cowderoy. There is no doubt we were caught cold, once we settled we were good at producing some quality passage of play that was only missing the end product.

“We needed to be more clinical in and around the box too, the opening Oswestry goal was clinical, so that was the difference between the two sides.”

Oswestry were 2-0 up inside six minutes, with their final and final goal coming later in the match when they were awarded a free kick.

Peters disagreed with the decision to award the free kick, and felt that the referee wasn’t at his best in the match.

“If their player was to be honest, he would admit it was a slip and not a foul by Stuart Craig,” he said.

“The referee made some strange decisions all afternoon, none more than awarding that free kick which they scored from.

“It looked like a well worked free kick but without taking anything away from their team, but it was naive on our part to not have a player stood in the area that the ball was curled into.”

“If we break the game down then out of their three goals, one was from the penalty spot and one a free kick, so the game was never a three goal gulf. Despite the defeat I was proud of the response the boys gave us.”

The defeat has left Bacup 15th in the North West Counties Division One table, having taken 22 points from 20 games.

Bacup will now hope that they can return to winning ways when they make the trip to Alsager Town this weekend. ●● Michael Gervin fired a hat-trick for Bacup at AFC Blackpool but was unavailable for the game at Oswestry on Saturday

‘Once we settled we were good at producing some quality passage of play’