Owens the hero as Skem recover
SKELMERSDALE United had to fight back from a goal down twice on route to registering the first victory of new manager Dave Powell’s reign, at the same time they notched up their first win since August 26th.
The star of the show at Stormy Corner was centre-forward Andy Owens, scoring two and setting up the other for Skem.
The opening quarter hour saw two teams cancelling each other out as they both worked hard to establish a foothold in the game, the best effort was a free-kick from Ramsbottom number 11 Jerome Wright that was routinely saved by Skelmersdale goalkeeper Jack Sims.
When the game burst into life in the 16th minute, it certainly did burst into life as three goals were scored in the space of five minutes.
Ramsbottom were awarded a free-kick some 30 yards from goal in a central position, Wright swung his well practised left boot and sent the ball into the heart of the Skem defence, Sam Heathcote ran onto the ball completely unmarked dived forwards and directed a header past a helpless Sims to put Ramsbottom 1-0 up.
It didn’t take Skelmersdale long to even things up.
On 19 minutes Owens went to ground under a clumsy challenge about 20 yards out, he took the free-kick himself and the ball was blocked by a defender, however, referee Carl Rooney pointed to the penalty spot, the offence handball.
Up stepped Owens and he belted the ball into the top corner of the net.
In the 21st minute Ramsbottom restored their lead and former FC United of Manchester hero Wright again showed just why he accumulated 400 appearances for The Rebels.
A ball into the Skem area was half cleared and went to Wright on the left, he played the ball low into the area, Greg Daniels (another ex FC United player) controlled the ball turned and drove it low into the Skelmersdale net to make it 2-1 to Ramsbottom.
The visitors pushed on for a while after their second goal and might have had a third when goalkeeper Sims left his area and miss kicked, the ball went up into the air but Daniels’ header from 22 yards bounced wide of the goal. About five minutes before the interval Skelmersdale grabbed their second equaliser.
The ball was played up to Owens who brought it down and looked to shoot, with those avenues blocked he played the ball tidily into the path of Callum Mahoney and he celebrated his return to Stormy Corner with a low shot under Danny Taberner.
The second-half was a tight affair and chances were few and far between, Ramsbottom got one early on when Phil Dean was put in, but keeper Sims came to the rescue advancing quickly and saving from the winger before he could get any kind of serious goalkeeper attempt in.
For Skem, Owens got the ball into the net, though he had pushed goalkeeper Taberner in the process.
With ten minutes to go, Alaster Redmayne ran at the Ramsbottom defence and was tripped just before he reached the penalty area, Owens lined up to take the free-kick and his left-foot curler left Taberner a statue as it entered the top corner of the net for the winner.
Ramsbottom went onto the attack and apart from a toe poke from Daniels that went around the far post Skelmersdale held on well, they put in a much improved performance and had the edge virtue of the fact that they finished better in front of goal.
Manager Dave Powell is building a footballing side that work well for each other, this victory will do plenty for their confidence.