Ormskirk Profit From Costly Mistakes

The disappointment of conceding with just two minutes remaining last time we faced our friends from Ormskirk back in December was still fresh in our minds and we were eager to put things right this time around. We had to take on this challenge taking on a team still in pursuit of the title coupled with the misfortune of being without 3 key players in Jude Carroll, Ben Devlin and Anthony Cooke. It meant James Boner started at left back and George Walker was given the opportunity to build on his man of the match performance 7 days ago in the holding midfield role. The game began with lots of sloppy play from both teams, Ormskirk looked slightly nervous and we gave the ball away far too cheaply on numerous occasions. Charlie Hacking was handed a full debut and our midfielder's tried to slip him in on a few occasions but the quality of the final pass was lacking. Gift had a great chance in the 14th minute but seemed to take an extra touch and not sort his feet out quick enough which saw his effort comfortably saved. The breakthrough finally came our way however after 25 minutes when Dan Edge's free kick was flicked on by Hacking and Gift headed home for his 9th goal of the season. It was a deserved lead but one that only lasted for a matter of seconds when their equaliser came via a strange decision by the referee who claimed the ball was still in play when a long ball was chased down and their player intercepted Joe Wilson's clearance to score from a narrow angle. It dented our confidence slightly and we were lucky to go in level at the break with Ormskirk hitting the bar on two occasions.

We struggled in the second half and they took they lead capitalising from overplaying in central midfield from George Walker, his ball to Paddy was quickly intercepted and Joe was lobbed to put them in front. Two goals in two minutes both again coming courtesy of our own mistakes left us with a mountain to climb. Ethan Danku came on and done very well down the left getting at the full back with lots of positive play. His cross in the 70th minute was headed in by an Ormskirk defender to give us a slim lifeline which was quickly dented when they scored from a direct free kick just 7 minutes later. Credit must go to our lads who kept pushing to the end and in the final minute Kaleb Sweeney's cut back was smashed into the back of the net by Alex McDonald who also bagged his 9th of the campaign. We have been left to lick our wounds but must learn from the mistakes quickly and aim to recover as we still have 18 points to aim for before the season concludes.