Match Reports for 26th August 2006

1st XI vs Oldham Hulmeians – Won 7 - 2
Scorers – Lee (3), Jackson, Clarke, Langford, OG
The first team travelled to Oldham hoping to add to the opening weekend win against Tyldesley.

After going 1 – 0 down they began taking control of the game and never allowed Oldham to settle. After scoring 5 goals without reply Oldham were awarded a somewhat controversial penalty to take the score to 5 – 2, but Blacks pressed on again and ran out convincing 7 – 2 winners to take all 6 points from their opening two games.

Today the 1st team take on Chadderton who finished 1 point ahead of us in the promotion battle of last season, so the game should prove to be an exciting fixture.

2nd XI vs Lymm – Won 4 – 1
Scorers – Flannagan, Rodgers, Newton, Best
The second team were also looking to keep their good start to the season with a home fixture against Ashtonians.

Like the first team they went a goal down early on, but following this bad start they began to dominate the game in all departments and went on to score 4 goals when it could have easily been many more.
Today they travel to league new boys Horwich Victoria in search of a third win.

Match Reports for 9th September 2006

1st XI vs Broughton Ams – Won 8 – 3
Scorers – Lee (2), Shaw (2), Clarke (2), Jackson, ?
With the opposition up for it the game started with some choice tackles from Broughton, but with the return of Shaw and Langford (B) being sober, we won the midfield battle and got a 3-0 lead through Lee and Shaw.

With a comfortable lead we were able to rest Shaw at halftime, and we then decided to let in 2 sloppy goals to leave the game evenly poised. This seemed to get us going again and we began to dominate with may chances going begging.

However we went on to score 5 more goals to cruise to an 8-3 victory.

2nd XI vs Rochdale St Clements – Lost 4 – 1
Scorers -
With a Rochdale showing us some respect by playing five at the back, we managed to go 1-0 down with their first attack of the game, and the opposition began to dominate the game. A penalty claim was turned down and Rochdale went straight to the other end and scored for 2-0 at halftime.

Zitzen had to be substituted at halftime due to injury which meant a change at the back, but this did not seem to trouble us as we created many chances without any success. We did manage to get one back, but in the end it was a case of missed chances as Rochdale ran out 4-1 winners.

3rd XI vs Ainsworth – Won 5 – 4
Scorers – Haggart (2), Fox, Rodgers (A), Andrew
No match report available.

4th XI vs Hesketh Casuals (A) – Lost 4 – 2
Scorers – Clayton (N), Conlon
The 4th team travelled to last years Division 4 Champions in hope of more points – but it wasn’t to be. After a very positive start we dominated the game with Hartley going very close with our first attack. We were rewarded for our pressure when Clayton scored following a corner. Unfortunately we gifted Hesketh an equaliser before halftime following a mix up at the back.

In the second half we were like a different side. We allowed Hesketh to take control of the game and found ourselves 4-1 down after about 70mins. A good headed goal from Conlon was small reward for what turned out to be a poor second half performance.

5th XI vs Broughton (A) – Won 3 – 2
Scorers – Robertson, Walsh, Sharples
With Pat having to ref and Broughton being ok with this, OB decided to cut their centre forward in half within the first 5 mins! Pat had a “quiet word”! We were playing well and dominating the game when we lost the ball in midfield and promptly went 1-0 down with nothing Fisher in goal could do about it. Not content at doing it once we decided to have another go and again Broughton scored with nothing Fisher could do about it – 2-0.

Then the come back! Broughton took their centre half off and this changed the game. Walsh finished off a scrappy goal following a Robertson cross, then Sharples scored from a free kick following a foul on McCarthy Jnr. Robertson then got a third by chipping the keeper for 3-2 - and the stand in ref had nothing to do with this fine come back!

Match Reports 16th September 2006

Cup Fixtures

1st XI
No Fixture

2nd XI vs Ainsworth – Won 7 - 0
Scorers – Corrigan (2), Tomlinson (2), Flannagan, Houldsworth, ?
Wanting to bounce back from last weeks disappointing result the management asked for a professional approach to what on paper seemed to be a reasonably easy fixture. A positive start right from the first whistle was shown by all players, and this led to 5 first half goals to lead 5 – 0.

At half time some changes were made and the team talk was aimed at more of the same, however, as happens so often in these commanding positions, we did take our foot off a bit, and we did loose some shape. However 2 more goals were added in the second half for a well deserved 7 – 0 victory.

3rd XI vs Spotland Methodists “A" - Won 6-2
Scorers – Haggart , Fox (2), Eddleston, Harbour (2)
The 3rd team began their defence of the “A” team cup with what also seemed to be an easier fixture on paper, but again a professional approach was shown.

The opposition worked very hard and managed to keep us at bay for the first 25mins, then a strike from Haggart and one 2 minutes later from Eddleston left Spotland some what shell shocked. From then on we took control of the game, although we were guilty of loosing concentration to allow the visitors a couple of goals, but Harbour and Fox both went on to score further goals to run out convincing 6 – 2 winners.

4th XI vs Rochdale St Clements “B” – Won 4 – 1
Scorers – Spall, Conlon, Kay, Loya
The 4th team were at St Clements against last years Champions of Division 6. A forced change meant Clayton moved to centre half after Maxwell moved to left back. We had a confident start with plenty of the ball, but then a mix up at the back allowed Rochdale in to pinch a goal for 1 – 0. A long ball was then played up to Spall who calmly rounded the keeper for 1 – 1, to be closely followed by Conlon after some good work from Hartley to take the lead 2 – 1.

A forced change at halftime saw Kay come off the bench and promptly took his chance and scored for 3 – 1. Our 4th came from Loya whose deflected free kick gave the keeper no chance. A good win , and a confidence boost to take into today’s league game.

5TH XI vs Rossendale Ams “B” – Lost 4 - 1
Scorers – Cranage (J)
The 5th team gave Rossendale the perfect start with 2 bad back passes which left Fisher no chance with either. After this shaky start they began to get back into the game and Cranage (J) got one back following a individual run.

With 10 mins to go and chasing the game at 2 – 1 down some gaps started to appear and Rossendale took advantage of this by getting 2 late goals on the break. In a game of total contrast to last week manager Pat McCarthy said that overall it was a poor performance, and that we gave the ball away far too often.

Match Reports 23rd September 2006

1st XI vs Thornleigh – Drew 5 - 5
Scorers – Lee (2), Moorcroft (2), Clarke
Thornleigh beat us last year so this was a chance to make amends. On a pitch which was described as “dodgy” we managed to get an early goal to take the lead 1-0. The opposition opted for a lot of long ball and we struggled to cope with this, which resulted in 3 goals against, and with the score at 3-1 down we were reduced to 10 men when Langford was sent off.

We made some changes and got the game back to 3-3, but then another long ball caught us and we were 4-3 down. Even after this we managed to fight back to 5-4 up only to see Thornleigh score with the last kick of the game for a 5-5 draw.

2nd XI vs Bacup Utd – Won 6 - 1
Scorers – Flannagan (2), Zarac (2), Houldsworth (2)
A fine performance from the 2nd team started with 3 goals in the opening 10 minutes to lead 3-0. With Pete Zarac making a welcomed return we went from strength to strength and never looked back from the stunning start. The opposition got a conciliation goal when Zitzen upended one of their forwards (that’s a hat-trick now apparently), but a good double save from Richardson kept them to just the one goal as we ran out very worthy 6 – 1 winners.

3rd XI
No Fixture

4th XI vs Oldham Hulmeians – Won 7 - 3
Scorers – Loya (3), Conlon (2), Spall, Hartley
With one sub injured in the warm up and Woodford injured after 3 minutes following a goal stopping tackle, it was an interesting start to the 4th teams first home fixture. This all led to a slow start which we quickly improved on as Spall got the opener to lead 1-0. Oldham got right back in it when a mistake at the back let them in for 1-1.

We soon bounced back from this with a screamer from Loya followed by a penalty from Conlon, which he had won himself. Oldham again got one back but they never looked like they were going to trouble us as Loya went on to claim his first senior hat-trick, and both Conlon and Hartley added to our tally. This was a fine performance by the 4th team against one of the many 2nd teams they will face this season.

5th XI vs Oldham Hulmeians (B) – Won
Scorers – Robertson (3), McCarthy (A), OG
No match report available