Welcome Back!!

Well, it's been a long time. But now I'm back! The laptop decided that, at one of busiest times of the season, it wanted to break. Anyway it's all fixed and time for an update. Last time I posted on here it was to preview the visit of Chadderton. Since then we have had the double delight of a 2-1 home win and a 2-0 away win followed by a mixed Easter weekend.

Saturday seen us travel to Barrow to face Holker Old Boys, who are flying high this season. The day started bad... and stayed that way. Manager John Carroll had to drive to Blackburn to pick up a minibus at 9am so that he could get back to pick the players up at 11. With everyone on the minibus we set off towards Barrow. The minibus was limited to 62 mph so we knew it was going to be a slow journey. Rolo put his CD on with, well, what can only be described as noise and the minibus with 6 gears ticked along at 62 upto about 3 miles south of Lancaster. From there to the other side of Lancaster it was bumper to bumper traffic as an earlier accident had closed the motorway and we were stuck in the repercussions. It took us about 45 minutes to get through it and all of a sudden the road emptied. We arrived at the ground at about 1:45 so it was literally get straight off the bus and start to get changed. For the match itself, the performance was poor. Maybe a disrupted journey didn't help, maybe we didn't fancy it. Whatever it was it wasn't good. I'm not here to criticise and I think everyone will agree that we know are much better than our performace shown. A goal from Holker's Pearson on 31 minutes gave them the lead at half time. The second half didn't improve and goals from Coombe on 74 minutes and Kewley on 90 minutes killed us off. After the final whistle everyone in the dressing room new in their own minds that what they had just produced was below the required level.

Sometimes the best way to answer a bad performance is to play as soon as you can after it, so that whilst it's fresh in the mind you can right any wrongs.

Hold that thought. Leek CSOB came to EGS looking to keep pressure on Barnoldswick and Stone at the top of the table only to be stunned by a one legged goal machine in the shape of the predator himself Ste Eddy. The first half was largely uneventful and the only piece of action that springs to mind is a fantastic save by Andy Hewitt. The Leek forward turned on the edge of the box and tried to curl a shot into the top corner only to be foiled by save pulled out of the top draw by Hewitt who dived full stretch to his left to tip the ball round the post. The second half didn't take long to come to life.
3 minutes in Predator Edwards opened the scoring with a low shot past the Leek goalkeeper. That seemed to wake Leek up and just as Leek wiped their eyes and had a stretch Ashton went for a 20 minute power nap. Whilst Ashton were having this power nap Leek could have well and truely been out of sight. First they equalised through makin on 51 minutes. 5 minutes later they found themselves in front as Muller lost the ball in our own half and it was played through to Greene who found himself clear of the last man to place a shot across Hewitt and into the back of the net. If it wasn't for Hewitt though Leek could of been celebrating with half an hour to go. Their tall centre forward, wearing the number 9 shirt, chested the ball 6 yards out and turned the ball onto his right foot. He blasted a shot from point blank range only to see it palmed wide by Hewitt. The second great save from Hewitt. Ashton then woke fromt he power nap and looke recharged. On 69 minutes a Free kick from the half way lane was put into the box by Gary Doyle. A crowd of players rose to ehad the ball and it somehow managed to scrape of the predators head and into the back of the net to make it 2-2. With about 15 minutes to go Keeper Andy Hewitt got injured but after 2-3 minutes of treatment he played on. no more than 30 seconds after Hewitt was back on his feet he pulled of the 3rd, and in my opinion most important and best, save of the match. Leek's number 9 drilled a shot and Hewittt saved, only for the ball to drop on the 6 yard line. Without a moments hesitation he flung himself at the ball as the Leek forward blasted a shot. The power of Hewitts hand deiverted the ball away from goal and it was swept away. To be fair, it hurt Andy Hewitt but he got on with his job and was absolutely brilliant.
Ashtons reward for the grit and determination of the second half was yet to come. For some reason on th eleague website it says this hapened at 88 minutes but it was at least 93 minutes on my watch!! The predator received the ball on the edge of the box with his back to goal and he had 3 Leek defenders blocking his way to goal. Edwards then decided to put the ball to his left before turning taking one more touch to take it out of the reach of the Leek defenders and creating space to unleash a savage right foot shot which flew inside the post to make it 3-2 to Ashton. with a total of 10 minutes (YES 10) added time played Ashton kept their heads and dealt with the Leek attacks. One attack did result in a free kick 5 yards outside the box but the wall did its job and it was cleared. It was a perfect reaction to what happened on Saturday and I don't think you could ask for much more.

Results from the last few weeks

Ashton Town 2-1 Chadderton
Chadderton 0-2 Ashton Town
Holker OB 3-0 Ashton Town
Ashton Town 3-2 Leek CSOB

Onwards and Upwards