Monthly honour for McCarthy

RARELY does a new signing at a football club make an impact as immediate and telling as Connor McCarthy has done at Runcorn Linnets.

He is their Bowland Brewery Player of the Month for October.

When boss Michael Ellison secured his signature, his comment was: “This is a huge signing for us” – and he could not have been more accurate.

In a month, which saw striking options often heavily restricted due to injuries, McCarthy at times seemed to be leading a one-man charge. His pace and strength provided crucial goals and assists while his hold-up play allowed the team to settle and reshape.

In the narrow win at Kendal, he turned in a match-winning display.

Latching onto a defensive lapse at the start of the second half, he opened the scoring before a run into the penalty area resulted in him being brought down for a spot-kick, which Danny O’Brien converted to secure the win.

McCarthy made it back-to-back man-of-thematch displays with a telling contribution in the 6-1 victory at Colne. Scoring the fourth goal and creating the sixth were just a snapshot of his overall efforts.

He then earned high praise for his tireless efforts in the 2-1 defeat at Prescot Cables. Following strike partner Freddie Potter’s early dismissal and Mike Simpson also seeing red before half-time, it was left to McCarthy to single-handedly try to hold up the play as best as he could in a one-man Linnets attack. He chased and harried the Cables defence whenever the ball was cleared by the Runcorn defence.

The final fixture of the month was a Cheshire Senior Cup home tie against Vauxhall Motors and again he was a key figure in the second 6-1 victory of October. He had already created a goal for Bobby Evans by the time he rounded off a magnificent month’s football with an audacious goal of his own. Picked out by Niall Watson’s low cross to the near post, McCarthy turned on the spot and back-heeled the ball into the net with his first touch, leaving the Motors goalkeeper and watching crowd mesmerised.