Bacup pay penalty for missed chances
APENALTY on 35 minutes was enough to see Barnton through and book their place in the next round of the Buildbase FA Vase and send Bacup Borough home to rue missed opportunities.
Borough hadn’t played a match in over four weeks, and with several players missing out due to suspensions, it was always going to be difficult against a well organised Barnton side.
The players have spent the past four weeks training in isolation with regular contact through group chat and zoom, but with no physical training sessions taking place during that time it was going to be a challenge.
Borough did get off to a reasonable start with several runs into the opposition half. Good play from Josh Brennan and Alex Mellor operating out wide caused problems for Barnton, and with Toby Wright playing through the middle it gave Borough the opportunity to take advantage of Wright’s physical presence.
On numerous occasions Borough had chances to take the lead but with Barnton’s Arron Lyons pulling off a string of top class saves to deny both Wright and Mellor, you had the feeling that Brent Peters’ side would regret those missed chances.
And on 35 minutes Barnton made them pay.
long ball over the top found Thomas Edwards in space one on one with Harry Turner in the Bacup goal, Edwards tried to go around Turner to slot home but was caught by the keeper’s left leg. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and in the process giving Turner a yellow card. From the resulting penalty, Eden Gumbs calmly stepped up and slotted beyond the keeper to give Barnton the lead.
Borough continued to try and make things happen, but on a sloppy pitch which had already been played on 24 hours previous in a game with 1874 Northwich, borough were finding it increasingly frustrating to get any kind of flow or momentum going.
In the second half the Bacup players continued to oppose themselves on the hosts but to no avail. Alex Luby came on down the right in an attempt to stretch the Barnton backline with his pace, and on a few occasions he did create half chances for Peters side, but with a pitch heavily chewed up and resembling a farmers field in the latter stages it was never going to be easy. The game slowly fizzled out and it was the Cheshire club that will now face north east club, Seaham Red Star in the second round.
“It was never going to be easy coming here, they’re a good side who have also got off to a positive start,” said boss Brent Peters,
“The pitch wasn’t the best this afternoon having been played on yesterday but it’s the same for both sides so we’re not going to use that as an excuse.
“It was frustrating to find out on Saturday night that I had to make two changes to the squad due to the FA ruling on players receiving two yellow cards in the competition, so straight away we were up against it.
“The lads have been training in isolation, and
Thursday night was our first complete training session in a month and I think it showed out there today.”
The Borough manager added: “Cup competitions are great for prestige and the financial bonuses they bring to a club, but our focus must be on our league campaign which I hope continues on the 19th December away to Ashton Town.
“Not having supporters present also plays its part. We may only be small in number but the supporters really do help the players in these types of games.
“Hopefully we’ll come out of Tier 3 soon and welcome everybody back to West View.”