Two Early 2nd Half Strikes Win It For Bootle

A frustrating day at the office for our lads today, despite dominating large periods of the game and playing reasonably well it’s another defeat to what has been a poor start to the season. Zico who was handed a start up front got us off to the perfect start latching on to a terrific ball by Anthony to round the keeper and open the scoring after just 2 minutes. Their threat came down our right and it was there where they got joy and equalised just 3 minutes later. Their number 23 beat Jamie and cut a great ball back which was dispatched. From then onwards it was very much one way traffic and we should have been out of sight. Alex was giving their left back a torrid time but the final ball into the box lacked his usual quality. You know it was going to be one of them days when their keeper saved everything Paddy was denied twice firstly with a header then a half volley which he kept out magnificently. Anthony had a couple of long range efforts and Alex could have slotted long before he got his rewards in the 34th minute. Reuben played a great switch pass to Zico who saw Alex’s overlapping run, he played his pass and our number 15 kept his cool to slot past the keeper to make it 2-1 heading into the break.

Poor defending and concentration cost us as Bootle scored just 46 seconds into the 2nd half then took the lead with a long range strike in the 45th minute. We pushed forward and got well on top but just couldn’t convert our chances. Gift looked like he’d scored only for the ref to change his mind and rule it out for offside. What was worst was the decision not to send their man off for a foul on Gift when he was threw on goal. With the defender being the last man he should have saw red it was no question. Chances fell to Dan and Alex but again their keeper kept us out. It was clearly not our day but the defeat hurts and the opportunity to turn the corner against a side we felt we could beat was denied. Credit to Bootle they dug in and took their chances but we need to dust ourselves down and find the solutions to the problem and turn good performances into wins because at the moment we just aren’t getting the rub of the green.