Weather-hit seven goal thriller
Saints began sluggishly, and it wasn’t long before Euxton went 4-1 up.
Mary’s battled on with Alex White prominent in midfield, and they began to play the better of the teams, they were rewarded on 60 minutes when Hanley picked the ball up and ran at the defenders, before hitting a great left foot shot which beat their keeper. Saints were now on the front foot, and continued to press the home defence. They were rewarded on 75 minutes when a great move through midfield found Hindle, who played Saunders in, and he made no mistake. Although Mary’s continued to dom- inate the remainder of the game, they couldn’t get a deserved equaliser, so left pointless.
Manager Anthony Halstead said: “The game looked over at 4-1 but the lads battled hard, especially in the second half, against the wind, perhaps if we had equalised with the first half penalty, it may have been the early catalyst we required. Having to make several changes every week isn’t helping performances, we take 20 minutes or so to find our rhythm. It’s a credit to the young lads that come in, performing as they do, as it’s a great leap in standards from reserve team football. We’re also looking to strengthen the squad in the new year, with one or two new faces. We still have plenty of games left to gain the points required to stay in the Premier division, so we must all give it our best shot.” St Mary’s are at home on Saturday against Burscough Richmond with a 2pm kick off. THIS FA Trophy first round tie took place on a blustery and rainy Saturday afternoon in West Cumbria as Ramsbottom United took to the road to Workington’s wonderfully traditional Borough Park Stadium after being drawn away from home for the fifth consecutive time in this season’s FA Trophy competition.
The visitors’ starting 11 showed just two changes from the victory seven days earlier at Kidsgrove with Ruben Jerome replacing the cup tied Jamie Rainford up front and Simon Woodford slotting into central defence at the expense of the unavailable Kelvin Lugsden.
With conditions looking very likely to have a bearing on proceedings the opening 10 minutes were fairly even with both teams finding it difficult to have any attacking fluidity to their play but with the strong wind in the home side’s favour the visitors would need to be at their resolute best as they attempted to continue their superb recent defensive record of conceding just two goals in the last seven away matches in all competitions.
It would be Workington that perhaps just about edged the early possession stats as the contest was developing into a midfield tussle with both teams quickly coming to the conclusion that free flowing football would be something for another day as the home side appeared to be looking for longer passes behind the Rams defence to try and supply the pacey wingers in Holt and Tinnion.
A look at the league standings showed that the hosts were next to bottom of the league above the Rams, so, with home advantage the Reds supporters would be hoping that the higher rank side would show their superiority but as the half progressed there Ramsbottom United: Ashton, Kennedy, Ellison, Moran, Thompson, Woodford, Rodney, Rother (Osi-Efa 65 mins), Jerome, Donaldson, Evangelinos. Unused Subs: Rowe, Parker, Hart, Jarrett