Dog day afternoon for luckless United

AFTER last week’s poor form, Skelmersdale United manager Alan Rogers was looking forward to spending a fixtureless midweek working on improving things with some specialist training sessions.

And the hard work almost worked a treat as his young team agonisingly missed out on a point down in the West Midlands.

After a first-half that will be remembered more for the antics of a wayward Beagle than for flowing football, Skelmersdale went a goal down soon after the break, they fought back well and but for a fine penalty save by the home goalkeeper would have surely earned a point for their efforts.

The first-half really was a scrappy affair; the highlight from a football per- spective was a shot from 20 yards by Halesowen’s Lee Chilton that Skelmersdale goalkeeper Chris Cheetham dealt with via a full length dive to his right, but that only came about after Skem had given the ball away in the middle of the park.

Midway through the half a pitch invasion by a Beagle dog was the most memorable moment, deftly avoiding capture for a full seven minutes, the dog’s expert body swerves have been shown on national television and have gone viral on the internet.

In the 55th minute Halesowen sent a left wing corner curling onto the edge of the six yard box, Bradley Lewis met the ball on the run, rising above two static Skem defenders, his powerful header went low to the centre of the goal, hitting a Skem defender on the goal-line on route to the back of the net.