Report

Our ADJFL Summer League campaign got underway on the 3G pitch at Accrington Academy with this fixture against Rishton.
This was to be a new experience for both us as a team and myself as coach.
Not surprisingly the game was very scrappy to begin with, but when it did settle into a pattern it was Rishton asking the questions. Zak, Andrew and Troy were defending well, but there was nothing they could do when a clearance fell perfectly for a first time effort from range which found the corner to put us behind. Our performance in the first half was disjointed and not helped by Luke being out of sorts. Despite this, Joseph did not have much to do and we looked like getting to the break just one behind. However, another long range effort from the same player gave Rishton what was to be a crucial second goal. Despite the similarity to the first goal, this time there was plenty of opportunity to close the striker down and block the shot, so from our point of view it was a poor goal to concede.
At half time we changed the formation with David agreeing to come on in goal to allow Joseph to try and get us going in midfield. After a few minutes to find his feet this is exactly what he did. We were now dominating, but just not getting the run of the ball where it really mattered. Connor hit a great shot towards the corner after a strong run down the left, but saw the keeper pull off an excellent save. Finally we got a goal back as Luke played in Joseph who made no mistake. Just as we looked to push for the equaliser we were hit by two injuries in quick succession. This meant that we lost our impetus and Rishton were able to get back into the game. As time ran out, we gambled and pushed players forward, but Rishton were able to exploit the gaps we had left to add two further goals, the second with the last kick of the game.
Hopefully, we will have learned a lot from the game and will be better for it, especially when back to full strength. However, we are under no illusions as to how difficult some of the games in this league are going to be.
Once we got going there were some good performances, but we gave ourselves too much to do. Credit to the players for keeping the game alive until the last few minutes. Our man of the match goes to Connor who played well throughout.

Gary