St Mary’s put end to losing run
WEST LANCS LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION COPPULL UNITED........... 0 HAS ST MARY’S .............. 0 STEVE BAYES HASLINGDEN St Mary’s battle to get away from the foot of the table as they halted their losing run with a good performance with 0-0 draw in their away match against Coppull United.
After a pretty even start the first chance fell to Mary’s when captain Mickey Saunders caught the keeper off his line, he lobbed the ball over the keeper but it drifted just wide of the goal, chances for either team became a rarity in the first period with defences in control.
Some overzealous challenges from the Coppull defenders were going unpunished by the officials when Mary’s threatened to get forward to the frustration of the Mary’s players and tempers threatened to boil over.
In the second period Mary’s concentrated more on their football and controlled the half creating more chances. On the hour a Scott Wylie shot on the turn brought a good save from the keeper, and from the resulting corner Coppull cleared the ball up field and a shot on goal brought a great save from Mary’s keeper Joe Sipocz as he finger tipped the shot over the bar.
Further chances flashed past the Coppull goal and as the half wore on it seemed the goal from Mary’s was imminent, but it wasn’t to be whilst at the other end Coppull forced two late corners to jangle the nerves in the Mary’s defence but they held firm and the match ended goalless.
St Mary’s management had mixed feelings at the end – happy with the clean sheet, but with the lion’s share of the possession, a winning goal would have put the icing on the cake from a much improved performance.
St Mary’s are at home on Saturday when Hesketh bank visit South Shore Street with a 2pm kick off.
St Mary’s reserves conceded two late goals in their home match against Wyre Villa Reserves to end with a share of the spoils.
Their next match is on Saturday against Hesketh Bank Reserves with a 3pm kick off. ●● Phil Dean, who set up the Rams third goal ●● Danny Taberner pushes a Bamber Bridge effort wide