St Mary’s left to rue their sluggish start

WEST LANCS LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION THORNTON CLEVELEYS 3 HAS ST MARY’S .......... 1 STEVE BAYES A VERY poor performance from Haslingden St Mary’s in the first 70 minutes of this match saw them go down to a 3-1 away defeat at Thornton Cleveleys.

The match couldn’t have got off to a worse start for St Mary’s. They hadn’t been into the Thornton half of the pitch before they found themselves a goal down after only two minutes when a super free kick saw the Thornton striker get across the defender to head home,

Things didn’t get any better for St Mary’s their normal passing game wasn’t on show as their attempted attacks were easily dealt with by the Thornton defenders.

On 20 minutes a fierce Thornton free kick was brilliantly tipped round the post by Mary’s goalkeeper Ben Nutter, who with half time approaching acrobatically tipped a header onto the cross bar and away to safety.

The second period started with a bang as Mary’s pushed forward and on 46 minutes a Mickey Saunders over head kick was smothered by the keeper. His clearance up field led to Thornton being awarded a penalty, with the taker firing the ball high over the bar, but a minute later Thornton doubled their lead when a defensive mix up let the forward round the keeper and fire home from a narrow angle.

St Mary’s couldn’t string any passes together and they were made to pay on 57 minutes when a great run down the left saw the wingers cross poked home from close range to give Thornton a 3-0 lead. With 20 minutes left St Mary’s appeared to wake up and passes started finding their men with chances being made.

On 77 minutes the deficit was reduced when from a throw in a Reece Goodchild cross was turned into the corner of the net by Scott Wylie.

St Mary’s pressed on in the closing stages but the damage had been done in the first 70 minutes and Thornton ran out worthy 3-1 winners.

St Mary’s next match is on Saturday when they are at home to Euxton Villa with a 3pm kick off.

Haslingden St Mary’s reserves remain pointless after three games when they went down to a 6-2 home defeat to Tempest United Reserves, Riley Armstrong scored both St Mary’s goals.