Borough pride
BACUP Borough manager Brent Peters says he has been extremely proud of what his players have managed to achieve in the first week of the season.
Bacup kicked things off with a 1-0 loss at Prestwich Heys, before then having home draws against Lower Breck and St Helens Town. While his side may not have won yet, Peters has still been pleased with what he has seen his team produce.
“I am so proud of what the boys have given me in this opening week of the season. We may not have recorded our first win yet but one thing that is a stone wall certainty and cannot be taken away from us is the plaudits that have been coming our way from our opponents and followers of nonleague,” he said.
“That shows just how well we have played and how well organised we have looked in our opening games. We have just completed two difficult games in the space of 45 hours. Games that have both been competitive and played at a terrific pace. With this we have produced some absolutely outstanding football, so much so I was honoured to receive an e-mail on Saturday evening from a neutral football follower that was so impressed with our football that he took the time to let me know.
“In his words, he felt that we had produced football at times which was better than he had witnessed in a lot of higher graded teams.
“I can’t disagree with the gentleman’s comments, as it was a sheer joy to watch, but we must be more clinical and really hurt teams whilst we are on top.
“Otherwise what can happen is what happened in injury time against St Helens, where the ball spins off my defender’s foot taking it cruelly past our goalkeeper from a situation he did seem to have covered, this resulted in St Helens recovering one point from a second half we completely dominated.
“It was a good team performance but I do think within this team performance I must men- tion Michael Gervin, Anthony Hall, Josh Walne and Matty Dell, who combined terrifically throughout creating many openings.
“Equally I must say in order to strive for excellence and achieve this we must start at the back and be hard to beat in ensuring the opposition chances are limited.
“This is another area I feel we are achieving based upon our opening three games having conceded only three goals, one was an own goal which was unfortunate, but the other two goals could easily have been prevented.
“Considering last season defensively our record was not the best, the signs this time around show that we most certainly do look a solid unit.“We are very much work in progress, there is a long way to go but the early signs following a positive preseason are very good.“
Next up for Bacup is an away game as they make the trip to the Don Marks Carpets Stadium to take on Carlisle City this weekend.