Boro keep up pursuit of league pacesetters
BACUP Borough came away from Little Wembley with a 4-0 victory over local rivals Nelson FC at the weekend, and with that win were able to keep up the pace with the pack at the top end of the NWCFL Division One North.
The pitch was in reasonable condition bearing in mind the heavy rain in East Lancashire twenty four hours prior to the game.
Toby Wright, Gareth Wager and Kyle Siddle returned to action from injury and came through a hard fought physical battle unscathed.
The first fifteen minutes saw the hosts have excellent chances to take the lead, and maybe on a different day they would’ve taken advantage. If you don’t take those chances when they come along you more often than not pay the price and unfortunately for Andy Harrison’s team they did.
Bacup took the lead on 16 minutes through Toby Wright. A free kick into the Nelson box which they were unable to clear found Wright in space who slotted home from five yards out.
Nelson continued to push forward and were causing borough problems from the aerial balls into the box. Joe Savin and Kit Lloyd went close with efforts, and Savin disappointingly for Nelson was withdrawn on 36 minutes after a collision with the borough keeper Harry Turner.
In the second half borough were able to take more control with energy and purpose in the final third. Alex Mellor and Kyle Siddle were stretching the home side with bursting runs down the wings, and the industrious Aidan Hussey was constantly winning his midfield battles with quality distribution.
On 51 minutes borough made it 2-0 A free kick from the left found Joey Fallon making a darting run towards the near post, and the central defender was able to flick the ball beyond Jack Little into the keepers left hand corner.
The pitch at this point was starting to cut up quite considerably but both sides continued to play some attractive football with Nelson’s Mabhena producing an excellent move which resulted in the midfielder watching his shot go agonisingly wide of borough’s right hand post.
Brent Peters made changes with Callum Hewitt being replaced by Daniel Warren, and the impact was immediate. Warren managed to close down the defender, taking the ball towards the byline and playing a calmly placed pass into the feet of
Toby Wright who obliged with his second of the afternoon to make it 3-0
Josh Walne and Anthony Hall were also brought into action for the final 15 mins and on 82 minutes borough made it 4-0 through the versatile Brad Hancock. Another
free kick this time from the right hand side. The ball was driven around the Nelson wall and beyond Jack Little before he had a chance to react.
At the final whistle the manager looked in a buoyant mood. An excellent game played in good
spirits by two sides who were willing to get the ball down and try to play football on a difficult surface. Afterwards Peters was full of praise for the team.
“It was always going to be difficult on that pitch,” he said. “We have seen a lot of rain over the past
few days and within twenty minutes it was starting to cut up.
“The players stuck to their principles and continued to play football and that’s all credit to them as a squad.
“Nelson did cause us some problems in the first
twenty minutes but once we were able to get into our stride, especially in the second half, there was only ever going to be one winner.
“It’s three points and now we focus on Saturday’s game with Atherton LR at home.”