Boro’s luck out in pitch battle defeat

NW COUNTIES DIVISION ONE BACUP BOROUGH ........ 1 ATHERTON RL .............. 2 SHELDAN KEAY BACUP Borough manager Brent Peters felt luck was against his side during their defeat at home to Atherton LR on Saturday.

Peters’ side suffered a 2-1 defeat in the game at the Brian Boys West View Stadium, and Peters felt the defeat was a cruel blow.

“The conditions were horrendous for both sides as the pitch was a complete wreck disintegrating that badly that players were ankle deep,” he said.

“To lose the game was really a cruel blow for several reasons, the first and obvious reason was the amount of sheer hard work the boys put in on a pitch that looked like a herd of cattle had been present.

“Possession stakes we won hands down, however we must turn that possession into goals. We had chances mainly coming from the amount of free kicks we were winning around the edge of the box.

“Despite the fact we have several players that would normally have the quality to hurt teams from this position, on the day every one of my players who had the responsibility of delivering quality did fail.

“We were in good areas of the pitch ideal to hurt teams but their thought process and quality did elude everyone of them which was a total let down. This defeat came down to the finest of margins, also I think it is fair to say lady luck deserted us.

“Their opening goal had luck when my defender connected to a fizzing ball that really was unlucky when the ball deflected past his own goalkeeper.

“Whilst we did level the scores following excellent work from Matthew Bryan, what turned out to be their winning goal came just after half-time, and once again it was distances and fine margins.

“It was evident that lady luck was not with us and the fine margin between earning a point to a defeat was very much the slightest of distances which on this occasion we got wrong. We were punished but hopefully my young defender will learn and not only will we be more accomplished as a team, but also he will be as a player.”

‘To lose the game was really a cruel blow’