A Bridge Too Far Ashton Town 0 V 4 Liverpool

From the minute the gates opened to the minute they closed almost 6 hours later it was a special night at Edge Green Street that everyone involved with Ashton Town will never forget.

A nice big posh Ellisons coach reversed down Edge Green Street's bumpy 'surface' to let the players of Liverpool FC off and into the ground. They all got off in thier Liverpool Trackies each rolling a big bag on wheels and went into the changing room. This just highlighted the different worlds the players of the two clubs live in.

Whilst Liverpool made their way into their dressing room, we also made our way into our dressing room. A sit down and a chat followed. The lads all looked in good spirits and if any of them had nerves they weren't showing them at this point.

After a chat the lads got changed and got ready for the warm up. Ashton were the first team out onto the pitch to do their warm up, which I suppose is no suprise considering the Liverpool players will most probably have had a training session in the morning. Anyway, 20 minutes into the warm up the lads were joined on the pitch by their Liverpool counterparts and 20 minutes later the lads were called back into the dressing room for final instructions and to get their kit on.

Meanwhile on the pitch the 20 mascots were given a 10 minute 'warm up' before their big moment arrived.

Back in the dressing room and the lads were ready to get out there. The referee rang the bell and the lads lined up ready to walk out on to the pitch. My first thoughs when they Liverpool side walked out was that they would be more suited to a basketball Court! Jay Spearing apart they were all over 6 foot.



Credit to Liverpool who by picking a team that included Jay Spearing, who has Champions League experience playing against PSV Eindhoven and Real Madrid no less, A French under 21 international in the form of Damien Plessis, and Daniel Ayala who all have Premiership experience just showed how much respect they had paid to Ashton Town.

The teams in full were: Ashton Town Carl Lloyd, Andrew Mawdsley, Lee Crompton, Gary Doyle, Lee Green, Scott McNair, David Barton, Chris Walton, Shaun Judge, Christian Baxby and Steven Edwards.

Liverpool: Chris Oldfield, Steve Irwin, Robbie Threlfall, Daniel Ayala, Chris Mavinga, Emmanuel Mendy, Jay Spearing, Damien Plessis, Alex Kacaniklic, David Amoo, Nikola Saric

When the game got underway it was Liverpool who took control immediately and had three chances before we managed to get our first shot on goal. That shot came from Christian Baxby who hit a left foot drive which was superbly turned over by Chris Oldfield. By the time we got to grips with the pace of the game we found ourselves a goal down. After 14 minutes a long ball over the top found Emmanuel Mendy racing down the right hand side, keeper Carl Lloyd missed the ball as he came rushing out and Mendy squared the ball to Amoo who looked certain to score only for an amazing last ditch tackle by Lee Crompton which unfortuately fell to Alex Kacaniklic who did slot into the empty net. That was how it stayed until the break thanks to great saves by Carl Lloyd who managed to keep out efforts from Mendy and Saric.

2 minutes after the break another ball over the top, this time for Ashton, seen the ball end up at the feet of Liverpool Goalkeeper Chris Oldfield who sliced his clearance. Christian Baxby couldn't quite reach the ball and within 3 passes we found ourselves two down. The ball was played down the left to Kacaniklic who found himself somewhat suprisingly being closed down by Carl Lloyd, he then squared the ball to half time substitute and form Ajax man Jordy Brouwer who rolled the ball into the empty net.
The third goal came in the 58th minute when the athlete that is Chris Mavinga was brought down 25 yards out and Jay Spearing curled the resulting free-kick into the bottom corner.
The fourth and final goal came 7 minutes from time when Emmanuel Mendy slotted under Carl Lloyd after the ball was played in from the left.

After the game the Liverpool Players signed autographs and shook hands and were a credit to the football club.

The Ashton lads can be proud of thier acheivements and it's now onto an important league match against AFC Blackpool on Saturday. Unfortunately this one was just a bridge too far...

Good preparation for the visit of Liverpool.

Saturday afternoon, 3 o'clock, and finally some football! After 44 days of non-activity in the match department it was a releif to finally get back out there. After such a great finish to 2009 you could be forgiven for being a little nervous that the enforced 44 day break might not of worked in our favour. All the lads turned up for the Ashton Town V Rochdale Town match kitted out in their new trackies which I must say do look nice. After getting ready it was out for a warm up. Half an hour warm up complete and back into the dressing room for final instructions. Preparation over and out to get the game underway.
The opening ten minutes were pretty even with both teams game plans very easy to see. Rochdale were looking for the long diagnal ball over the heads of our full backs lee green and andrew mawdsley, whilst we tried to get the ball down and knock it around. After ten minutes we started to impose our superiority over bottom placed Rochdale Town and broke the deadlock on 15 minutes when a corner was swung in and baxy (Christian baxby) put the ball into the back of the net with a cheeky flick.
We didn't have to wait long to double that lead when 3 minutes later a lovely ball from the centre of midfield sent eddy (Ste Edwards) through on goal before he hit a powerful left foot drive beating the keeper at his near post. That's how it stayed until half time despite eddy's attempt at a superb over head kick after a cross came in from the right it was behind eddy, who turned round and somehow managed to get an over head volley on target. Unfortunately it fell into the hands of the goalkeeper.
Half time came and focus was the main thing. We new rochdale would come out at us in the second half. I mean who wouldn't in that situation? So we new the next goal was vital. After 3 minutes of the second half it came when Rochdale left eddy one on one with a defender, which is a silly thing to do especially down the hill, he raced away and slotted home to make it 3-0 and effectively game over. Chance after chance spurned in the second half meant that's how it finished but it could
of been many more then 3.
A confident performance going into the biggest match in Ashton Towns history. Well done boys you can be proud of a good performance. Let's just hope we can take it into Wednesday.

Our spying mission to Prenton Park

Last night myself and 12 scallies embarked on a spying mission that was about as secret as Paris hilton's love life. Our mission took us to prenton park to watch next weeks oponents Liverpool Reserves.
I left the house and travelled through the delightful Birkenhead Tunnel at a cost of £1.40 to appear on the other side in the pissing down rain. I made my way up to the ground and pulled my car onto the car park where two little tosspots stopped me to see if I had a pass, obviously I didn't, and at that point the pair of idiots in their bright orange jackets charged me two quid for the privelege of parking next to a French BMW x5. Things couldn't get any worse.
Quite right, They didn't. It was all upbeat from there. Walking into the reception we were greeted by non other than the Liverpool reserve team manger john mcmahon in his footy boots and shorts, as well as David fairclough the Liverpool legend. The nice lady behind the desk gave us our tickets which said on them "please admit to the vice-presidents lounge and directors box". I thought great stuff. I walked up the stairs and into the lounge where I met a few of the lads who were already there, only to realise the little gobshites were all dressed up and no-one had bothered to tell me. It's ok lads it's only me who looked like a scruffy bastard in my tracky and trainees. Anyway no grudges held we sat down to as much free tea and coffee as you could stomach. That's great if you like tea or coffee but if you're fussy like me well it was tuff shit.
About 10 minutes before kick off we took up our padded seats in the directors box placed right on the half way line. Just before kick off we were joined in the posh area by sammy lee the assistant manager of Liverpool along with his little foreign side kick and two foreign plaers who looked like they should still be learning how to tie their shoelaces. The match began and our pens began to write as we looked for something, anything, to help us in our plight. The match was entertaining although it was freezing an pissing down we managed to see three goals in the first half.
At half time again it was back into the lounge for as much tea and coffee as one could take. John Carroll said "I've had three cups of that and my fucking breath stinks" don't blame the coffee john!
In the second half we managed another 3 goals the last of which was an injury time equaliser by Liverpool to make it 3-3. Sammy lee had obviously had enough long before that point when Liverpool were 3-2 down he thought better of it and fucked off out the cold! I probably should of followed him but I wasn't passing off 15 minutes of a free match. The whistle went and it was as if they had said "now you've had a coffee and biscuits you can piss off" so off we went back through the tunnel and back to normality. In more ways than one! Overall a job worth doing and a job done well.

Finally some football after the snow!!

Finally after 44 days without a fixture it's looking good for a Town V Town clash. That's Ashton Town V Rochdale Town, or as the older folks would call them, Cassie Gabs. Refering to their former name of Castleton Gabriels of course.

Since the prescot match, way back on 9th December, loads has happened at Edge Green Street.... well off the pitch anyway. With no matches since then the arl legs might be a bit rusty but with about 10 training sessions in between and a little bit of christmas turkey thrown in to the mix everyone is in the same boat I suppose.

Also since then we found out we have the small matter of Liverpool FC visiting EGS for the quater final of the Liverpool Senior Cup. What a culture shock that's going to be for a few snot nose, 18 year old foreigners who are more used to a few grand a week and a snooker table-esque playing surface plus the nice weather of the costa del sol. Welcome to the real world boys. I know when they played Prescot Cables in the Senior Cup last year they bottled it the minute they walked into Valerie Park and thats wembley compared to our place.

Anyway enough said about the senior cup until after the Cassie Gabs match on Saturday. as it satnds they are bottom on 6 points and we are one place above them on 12 so a victory is needed given that 3 other teams are also on 12 points.

Anyway keep it here for One-Man's blogs on the Talk of the Town