Match Reports - Season 2011/2012

Sat. 20th Aug 2011	V	Ainsworth (a) 2 - 4 (ht.0-3) scorers : P. Monks, N. Russell
		Another season and another shambolic start. Luckily Chris Bell and I have a sense of humour – though its turning increasingly sardonic. At the final count we were 18 people down between the 1st and 2nd team. We got off to the worst possible start and were 3 down in 25 minutes. We were actually playing ok- its just that they had 3 chances and scored 3 goals. After that we slowly started to put things together. Chris has to come off feeling ill and Lever and Harrington formed a partnership in central defence (that in retrospect we should have had from the start). Russell looked solid in defence and midfield started to get it together. It is little comfort but we did win the 2nd half. Bangi was brought down in the box and Monks converted (eventually after a lot of retakes and faffing). The spark of hope was killed as Ainsworth replied almost immediately, but we did go on to win and convert a further penalty. Russell did the honours - but then committed a second bookable to end his involvement and we ended regretting missed opportunities and poor preparation. db
Wed. 24th Aug 2011	V	Horwich RMI (h) 4 - 0 (ht.2-0) scorers : J. Mottley 3, D. Cook
		With a number of key players returning we had a more familiar starting 11, but you wouldn’t have thought so after the opening 15 minutes. We were struggling in possession and when 10 yard passes were not reaching their target it looked like it was going to be another long night. After their early dominance they didn’t capitalise and against the run of play we went 1 up when Monks clipped a good ball over the top for "Lightning" Mottley who controlled well and chipped the oncoming keeper. This somewhat inspired us and we finally got out of first gear, the passing was crisper which made Horwich do all the leg work, Eccles should have doubled the lead with a quick counter but a square pass instead of shooting was probably the better option, however moments later amends were made when his through ball sent Mottley steaming through with all the time he needed to pick his spot. After the break it was a case of keep it tight and continue to play football. Again the early storm was dealt with quite comfortably by a solid back line, Horn, Lever, Owen, Harrington showed decent composure and when called open Big Daft Paul was a match for any long range attempt! Still with the game a 2-0 we couldn’t afford to ease off, Cookson had the chance to extend the lead on 2 occasions (the less said about the first the better), but the second was top quality and well deserved!! A great team passing move ended with Bangi (who again had an excellent game) crossing from the by-line for Cook to pop up and crash a first time volley into the bottom corner! With the end of the game approaching changes were made but there was still time for Mottley to grab his Hat-Trick, a decent corner was only half cleared and from the edge of the box James fired a first time shot passed the keeper (Among the Celebrations Matt H tried his hardest to claim it came off him but I saw nothing! Still no goals for young Matty LOL). Overall it was a solid team performance with everybody including the subs playing a part in a well deserved win. With a couple of players still to return we have the makings of a really good squad that could push further up the league this season!!!! Committing to playing every week is what’s needed as our strongest 11 would be hard to beat! Onwards and Upwards. NE.
Sat. 27th Aug 2011	V	Rossendale Ams Res (h) 2 - 1 (ht.2-0) scorers : M. Finnney, J. Mottley
		A few of the regulation number of changes, but slowly a settled group is starting to emerge. It was pleasing to welcome back Sean Cummins after being away since last January. We started well with Rossendale slightly edging midfield possession, but we looked more dangerous when we had the ball. Mottley provides a constant threat and we continued to find ways to release him into space and chances tended to come from it. Finney was the first beneficiary - with perfect timing arriving into the 6 yard box to knock in a cross from Cook. Ten minutes later Mottley latched onto a fine through ball from Cummins and a rasping left foot shot left the keeper clutching at thin air. Owen was unlucky not to extend the lead with two towering headers from corners - the first being cleared off the line and the second I swear must have gone through the net. At the other end Coulton made an excellent save to maintain our lead - he stayed on his feet when faced with a one on one situation and forcing the Rossendale player to go wide – and Eccles did equally well to get back and complete the clearance. The 2nd half was stalemate. Rossendale had slightly the better of the possession, but we maintained our shape and their efforts foundered on solid defence. With 20 minutes to go both sides were reduced to 9 men as very zealous tackle led to fisticuffs and handbags, but other than their harshly awarded penalty we saw the game out. Defensively we know we can deal with most situations but we need to start using the ball more constructively - and get fit ! db
Wed. 31st Aug 2011	V	O. Blackburnians (a) 6 - 4 (ht.1-2) scorers : J. Mottley 2, S. Cummins 2, N. Eccles, K. Cummins
		A somewhat topsy-turvy game that showed us at our best and worst. As normal with score lines such as this I have little real recollection as to who did what and to whom, but I have been notably assisted by Mr Mottley, who miffed by an unreported/missed "assist" in the last game has texted me to make sure I don’t miss mentioning his 2 "amazing" goals and 3 assists. Anyway, we took to the field with Mottley looking mean, moody and magnificent, but it was to no avail because we played like total plonkers for the first 25 minutes. Over run and slow to the challenge in midfield, too easily turned in defence and even with the heroic Mr Mottley we were largely ineffective in attack. A change in formation however brought an immediate change in fortunes and 4-4-2 meant that they could no longer bring the ball out of defence and pick apart midfield. Sean Cummins was the first to benefit when put through by Eccles he turned and drove the ball just inside the post. Blackburn took a 3-1 lead a few minutes into the 2nd half with a well worked move that deserved the goal, but then we hit a purple patch that secured the points. First Mottley squared the ball for K.Cummins to get a goal after only 10 mins then Mottley himself brought us level with a crashing drive from 10 yards. By now we were well on top in midfield and secure in defence and the goals continued to come. Sean Cummins gave us the lead and 2 minutes later Neil Eccles left foot went on a long mazy run, played a classic wall pass with (need you ask ?) and burst into the box. The keeper got to the ball just in time but faced with the sight of that marauding left foot, panicked, and Eccles was left with a simple task of tapping in the spilt ball . Mottley finished the scoring, but I cant remember how (i'm sure he'll remember and relish telling you if you need to know - and even if you don't), and that should have been that. There was still time for defensive mix up to gift Blackburn an undeserved late goal, but the result reflected a great performance in the final 50 minutes. db
Sat. 3rd Sept 2011	V	Tyldesley Utd (a) 4 - 3 (ht.3-1) scorers : R. Alston, K. Cummins, S. Cummins, A. Owen
		Following this game we look down on the rest of the Division from the dizzying heights of top, but don’t think this was easy and nor will the rest of the season be either. We did however start in reasonable fettle in no small part to a team unchanged from last week other than Monks – who was injured. We looked solid in defence , Owen and Lever being mostly in control of 2 decent attackers and lively in attack. Mottalston came close when taking advantage of slack defence and Eccles and Kieren Cummins had efforts well saved from close in. It was these 2 who were involved in both the opening goals. First Cummins header was just saved by the keeper but M-A reacted first to lash the ball home, then K.Cummins himself got into the 6 yard box ahead of the defence to steer home Alex Alstons cross. 2 injuries disrupted things around half time – Bangi and Lever both being replaced within a 10 minute spell- and though we continued to work hard, our pattern of play was never quite as smooth again. Tyldesley slowly exerted more pressure and it was no surprise when a penalty was conceded and converted, however we restored a 2 goal lead when Sean Cummins continued his run of scoring to sneak home our third. The second half was a stalemate in terms of possession but Tyldesley slowly brought themselves back into the game by means of another penalty (bit dubious frankly) and aided by yet another of our guys earning a red card - pointless expensive and showing our continued lack of discipline. Down to 10 men and by now with the game level at 3-3 , things looked less than rosy. However the whole team showed considerable desire and this was rewarded when from a well earned corner, Adrian Owen showed the greatest determination to out-jump everybody in a crowded box and power the winner past a helpless keeper. The chip butties had never tasted better. db
Sat. 10th Sept 2011	V	Mostonians (a) 4 - 5 (ht.2-2) scorers : J. Mottley 2, M. Howarth, S. Cummins
		Well buggger. Having started the day on top of the league we hoped (dare I say expected) for a performance worthy of that position. Instead our performance was sub standard in almost all aspects. The confirmed 13 that I had on Friday night had become only 10 men just 10 minutes before we were due to set off. We were late kicking off and though we took the lead we never really looked on top of our game. That having been said we did travel with 12 good men, its just that they never seem to be the same ones week on week - so far 26 people have played for the 1st team in 6 league games !!! To the game. Moston started the more lively but we hung in there and took the lead after 20 minutes. Sean Cummins and Mottley were by far our best 2 performers on the day and they combined to allow Mottley to take the ball into the box, round the keeper and into the net. Moston equalized 10 minutes later when a carelessly conceded free kick was converted in style from 25 yards and then took the lead following a good move and clinical finish. Defensively and in midfield we had been under pressure, but we had looked dangerous when going forward. Howarth caught the Moston defence and keeper in no-mans land to bring us level and Monks could have sent us in with an advantage, but, having reacted quickest to a loose ball, got over excited at the sight of an empty goal and put the ball over the bar (albeit from 35 yards out). We played better for most of the 2nd half, but our ability to concede sloppy goals continued and undermined much of the good work. Our best move of the game saw Sean Cummins burst into the box to apply a finish to give us the lead and Mottley produced a trademark run and finish to give us a fourth goal, but in between we conspired to let in 3 poor goals and the game was gone. Kieran Cummins did well in the unfamiliar role of full back, Coulton produced some good saves and Joe Fannon looked better as the game went on, but apart from that . . . db
Sat. 17th Sept 2011	V	Roach Dynamos (a) 2 - 2 (ht.1-1) scorers : J. Mottley, S. Cummins
		Amazingly, despite the weather, the pitch was in reasonable nick and the packed crowd was treated to an end to end game of a reasonable standard. Motorway problems had led to a late and rushed start and as always in these situations we started on the back foot. We went behind to a fairly standard corner/header combination that with a proper warm up would probably have been defended better, but as the game went on we started to look more threatening. Kieren C and Mottley combined well on a couple of occasions and Alex Alston raiding from full back looked especially dangerous and it was from a move involving these 3 that Mottley found himself with a shooting opportunity from the corner of the box. The subsequent shot fizzed and swerved and left the keeper helpless. Handley's return to the back 4 gave us a solid feel but despite the hard work we didn't really look fluid in the rest of the half and we turned around level. A half time discussion about passing and ball control had some effect and we did move the ball around more effectively for the next 45 minutes. This allowed midfield to get into the attacking moves and caused the Roach defensive many more problems. We took the lead when a shot from Mottley was blocked and everybody assumed the keeper would collect the ball. They had reckoned without Mottley's blinding pace over 2 yards however and the ball was toe poked back into the box. Sean Cummins reacted first and we were ahead. Roach had looked dangerous going forward and equalised following our only bit of sloppy defending in the half. The last 20 minutes was a rollercoaster ride in which we should have won the game, could have lost it, but overall ended with a fair result. Tele-printer highlights - Murch shot handled on line, Roach man sent off, penalty missed - good stop by Coulton to save us - Broughton well on top - good chances Eccles Mottley and Cook - management pulls out more hair. DB
Sat. 24th Sept 2011 LAL Cup Rd 1	V	Radcliffe Town (h) 2 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : S. Cummins, J. Mottley
		A cup game , and we usually do ok in the cup. The previously untried combination of Monks, Nathan Russell and Matt Harrington as midfield 3 took a while to settle down, but once it did we started to play some decent football. Alex Alston and Neil Eccles in particular started to combine well down our left side and the concern that this caused the Radcliffe defence began to create gaps on the right. James Mottley just failed to convert a couple of openings but we took the lead when Sean Cummins showed more determination than his marker to get on the end of a left to right cross-field ball. The resultant header back across goal left the keeper flat footed. The defence of Lever Owen Horn and Alston were by and large in control of the Radcliffe attackers and we started to play the ball from back to front – thus reducing our reliance on the Coulton “big boot”. It still needs some refining – but things are started to look a bit more cultured. The second half was much better. Radlciffe’s midfield were blown by the half way mark and our midfield, attack and raiding full backs started to weave to some very pleasing patterns as we cut through the opposition defence. Neil Eccles looked back on form and could have had a couple, but the calming goal came when Cummins was upended by a stretched defence and Mottley lashed home the resultant penalty. db
Sat. 1st Oct 2011	V	Prairie Utd (h) 2 - 1 (ht.1-0) scorers : P. Monks, N. Eccles
		The weather brought out a capacity crowd although some only stayed for 5 minutes- Mr Horn and party departing after 5 mins to watch some dreary affair in Fulwood. Well more fool you say I - as the one thing that you get with Broughton 1sts these days is a variety of entertainment - good and bad. So far in 8 games this season the 29 different players have scored 28 conceded 20, had 6 sent off (2 games ended with 9 players each), had touchlines Tevez moments- and somehow, amongst all this, play well and sit 2nd in the league. Prairie have 2 fast forwards and nearly took an early lead when the Prairie centre forward outpaced our defence , but Rick Grundy in goals stood tall and saved the day. He made a similarly fine save 10 minutes later when we again leaked badly, but slowly Rick Murch and the midfield bunch started to get a grip and we started to look more threatening. Andy Horn and Alex Alston in particular were heavily involved from full back positions and Harrington and Russell had good moments getting forward in support of Neil Eccles. We took the lead after 30 minutes when a goal bound shot from somebody was well saved on the line. The saver was the centre back rather than the keeper however so off he went and Pete Monks despatched the spot kick without fuss. Five minutes later Murch reacted badly to a bad tackle and the other guy reacted badly to the Murch's bad reaction. Russell ran 30 yards to make a further un-necessary contribution to the fracas and suddenly we were down to 9 men each. Given the temperatures, the second half was a credit to both teams as the game ebbed and flowed. Broughton looked the more likely to win it, but Prairie could easily have hit back as their best players now had more room to move. The defensive qualities were called on, Lever and Handley working hard to subdue the quick forwards and it was somewhat of a relief as finally we made the most of a chance and moved 2 goals ahead. Harrington and Cummins fashioned the opening and Neil Eccles applied a decisive finish. The last 10 minutes were end to end as players called on last reserves. Cummins had run himself into the ground and started shanking everything, Handley was taking on water at a rate similar to a 1960's steam engine but it was Monks (and i never thought i would ever be writing this) who seemed to be getting stronger as all around weakened who set the example and dragged us through to 3 points. We had conceded a late goal, but all in all we had looked pretty good. db
Sat. 8th Oct 2011	V	Radcliffe Town (h) 4 - 4 (ht.1-3) scorers : M. Howarth 2, R. Murch, N. Eccles
		My apologies to those avid readers of this column who early in the week breathlessly log on to flick the pages and discover the latest exploits of the Broughton 1st team. Actually its Mr P. Monks who should apologise since having promised to write the latest report on a guest basis- then failed- citing “couldn’t remember who did what” as the reason. Ironic really given the stick your usual journo gets from him for the slightest factual inaccuracy. Actually I can’t really remember who did what now either - other than scorers, but my motto is never to let the facts get in the way of a good story so here goes. If any player feels slighted by any error then you can always write to the webmaster Mr Lafferty with your correction. It won’t do any good, but it will make you feel better [WebMeister response: anyone wants to submit corrections etc they will be included - just keep em clean]. We started with Mick Howarth up front , our usual no 9 being AWOL, and his ability to proverbially “hold the ball up” meant that we were able to get it forward then feed off the short passes. This worked well and we took the lead after 15 minutes when Eccles seized on a loose ball to rifle it into the bottom corner. After that the Radcliffe midfield began to exert more influence and as we backed off then our ability to support Howarth reduced and pressure started to tell. By half time we were 3-1 down. None of the 3 goals were down to individual mistakes, but all were down to collective sloppiness. Misplaced passes, slowness to close down a threatening situation and poor communication all played a part. A half time reorganization to 4-4-2 together with some collective motivational talking worked wonders. We were well on top almost all of the 2nd half. Murch Cummins and Howarth linked well and Rob Pomfret clearly enjoyed his attacking midfield role. Andy Horn was a constant threat down the right and on the other side Rawsthorn looked an accomplished full back [WM: WTF!!! Rawsthorne - Full-Back - accomplished: not words ever imagined to hear/read in same sentence] despite claiming previously not to have realized that such a position existed - far less be expected to play it. Our second goal came from a corner met by Murch and we drew level when (lets say) Eccles provided a great cross for Howarth to head down into the bottom corner. We were jolted when we conceded a further goal to put us behind again - a disappointing goal that shouldn’t have happened at any level - but our collective spirit shone through and Howarth secured a point with an almost carbon copy goal of his first. db .
Sat. 15th Oct 2011 LAL Cup Rd 2	V	Chew Moor Brook (h) 0 - 1 (ht.0-0) scorers : -
		A cup game against a team from the top division promised to be a tough affair and we weren’t disappointed. Alex Alston lasted only 2 minutes into the pre match warm up and so we had 2 stand in full backs and this was only part of the general scrappiness that seemed to plague our play and the game in general. I am tempted to fast forward to the 85th minute when with tiredness setting in a wasteful pass was seized upon by CMB and for once Handley and Owen were outdone in centre defence before a pinpoint finish gave CMB the victory. It was a harsh way for the game to finish for although CMB had slightly the better of the 2nd half -and cut short the plans being made for who was going to take which penalty The first half had looked much more promising and a half time lead would not have been unfair. Howarth came very close with 2 fierce finishes that flew only inches wide and probably should have put us ahead when lifting the ball over the keeper – but also over the bar. Eccles looked threatening down the left and also went close whilst at the other end Coulton did well to keep out a couple of close range efforts on the odd occasion that the centre defensive wall put up by Handley and Owen was breached. In reality however the improvements made to passing and ball retention over the past weeks failed to be maintained, and too often a simple pass was mis-hit and incorrect decisions made The midfield trio of Monks, Cummins and Murch had their moments but never really exerted enough pressure and the people all around seemed a yard off the pace when called upon to support. Our 2 best chances of the 2nd half came just after the goal had been conceded. Murch had a shot bound for the top corner brilliantly finger tipped away and from the resultant corner we were only denied by a frantic goal line clearance - but we couldn’t really complain about the result. db
Sat. 22nd Oct 2011	V	Horwich RMI (a) 1 - 0 (ht.0-0) scorers : K. Cummins
		I like 1-0 wins. Well, actually I prefer 5-0 because of the lower stress levels involved, but 1-0 conjures up visions of hard gritty encounters with everybody defending like they mean it, individual battles won and a stolen winner to seal the points. In fact that would be a good description of the second half, but for the first 45 minutes we really played some good football – only lacking in the final finish. Howarth and Mottley linked well up front - Mottley looking particularly lively - and we linked well down the right with Kieren Cummins and Horn also heavily involved. Link play released Howarth, Mottley, Handley and Cummins for attempts on goal but somehow a last ditch tackle or rushed execution prevented a fitting reward for our efforts. The second half was a different matter. We were slow out of the blocks and never really got the control back and we had to thank Harrington and Owen in centre defence for sterling performances and Coulton for a number of quality saves to keep us in the game. Its not that we didn’t have the ball - just that we didn’t keep it for long enough to threaten and inevitably Monks and Handley spent increasing lengths of time defending deep and as time progressed neither side looked like breaking the deadlock. Eccles had been strangely quiet, but when moved to full back suddenly started to look a more attacking force ! With 10 to go the Eccles left foot went on one of its trademark mazy runs and finished with a low swirling drive from 20 yards that had the keeper at full stretch. The keeper saved it well but couldn’t hold on -and Kieren Cummins reacted fastest to secure the points. db
Sat. 29th Oct 2011	V	Thornleigh (h) 2 - 4 (ht.1-1) scorers : P. Monks, og
		Well this was a big disappointment, but not one in which we can have many complaints about the result. I am not sure if it was the murky weather or the sight of the oppositions ghastly black and yellow kit that put us off, but though we worked hard we never really found a spark or any form of fluency that allowed us to exert any pressure. At the risk of repeating myself, we still as a team aren’t properly fit - and sometimes it shows – and in most cases in equally matched contests the fittest team will prevail. We started well however and for the first 15 minutes we dominated possession, and it looked like we should be in for a good afternoon. Despite having the lions share we never really threatened the Thornleigh goal, which was a shame - as the Thornleigh keeper looked slightly suspect - and as the game went on Thornleigh started to create chances. Thornleigh took the lead following collective dozy defending from a corner allowing the Opposition forward to score with an overhead kick. The execution was masterly, but why were half a dozen of our guys stood around doing nothing? – hint – some individual soul searching needed here please. We switched formation for the last 15minutes of the half and looked much better, finally exerting some pressure and eventually it paid off, one off the Cumminses being hacked down in the box and Monks converted the spot kick. We should have kicked on - but didn’t - and at no point did we look in control of the second half. Positional changes were tried, new players introduced , verbal “encouragement” administered, but I , as manager, couldn’t find anything to influence our performance - and nor can I find the enthusiasm to describe it ! - DB
Sat. 5th Nov 2011	V	Hindley Juniors (h) 3 - 1 (ht.1-0) scorers : C.Butler, N.Eccles, K. Cummins
		With Doug away on work commitments stand in manager N. Eccles had the duty of taking TEMPORARY charge of a top of the table clash with Hindley Juniors. I had the usual 11.30 drop outs!!!!! But still with the 12 players available we had a very competitive line up. After a bit of a slow start from both teams it was Broughton who found their rhythm first, C Butler (a late call up after the 2nd teams postponement) was a consonant threat dropping back from upfront linking the play well between midfield and attack. It was from this good link up play we that we took the lead when Mottley neatly sent Butler through on goal and he made the finish look easy smashing a half volley home. The game started to open up after the first goal and we grew in confidence, both full backs Horn and C. Murch pushed up field causing Hindley more problems and this continued into the second half. The midfield was doing its job very effectively, R. Alston and Temp Captain Cumbo in particular kept the ball well in possession and battled hard to win it back when needed, this mentality spurred us on and after winning a free kick just inside the opponents half we extended our lead. Mottley delivered the perfect lofted ball into the box for Eccles to run onto and smartly head the ball passed the on-rushing keeper. We were in total control at that point but 2-0 is a deadly score line! Unfortunately within 90 seconds Hindley reduced the deficit, no blame needed as in my eyes the Back 3 of Coulton, Monks and Lever were as solid as I’ve ever witnessed!! This brought life back to Hindley and for a good 10 minutes we were shaky to say the least, but after a great save by Coulton we slowly regained our composure. We made it 3 with a classic counter attack, Mottley’s blistering pace too much for any defence at this level broke free and instead of shooting like his previous 10 attempts! He found another perfect pass for the unmarked K Cummins who marked another good performance to seal a well deserved victory. Credit goes to every Broughton player today, a great team spirit capped with 100% commitment! A recipe for success!! Cheers (did I forget to mention WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!!) - NE
Sat. 19th Nov 2011	V	Rossendale Ams Res (a) 4 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : J. Mottley 3, A. Owen
		A visit to the hill fort at Rossendale is traditionally a non productive affair- which makes this result all the more impressive. Don’t think it was an easy game though - despite the score we had to work hard for the points and it didn’t look safe until the final quarter of an hour. The game started even, and for half an hour ebbed and flowed without any real control on either side. Mottley went very close for Broughton but we were grateful for some stern defending from Owen, Lever and Horn to keep a lively Rossendale forward line at bay, however finally we got the breakthrough, and Mottley got his first of the day, latching on to a through ball from Kieren Cummins to out pace the defence, beat the keeper, dribble round the post (you had to be there) and pop it in. Management made the first of 2 organisational changes and then suddenly we started to look much more co-ordinated (the second change was less impressive – of which more later). Eccles and Sean Cummins gave us a little more umph in midfield, Monks in the somewhat unfamiliar role of wide midfield used his lack of pace to great effect and Ryan Alston on the other side started to find space and get involved in the game. Having established a good pattern, management then proceeded to balls it up by changing the formation at half time. Rossendale started the 2nd half at a high tempo and pushed us back and for 15 minutes we had to defend like we meant it. Luckily Coulton in nets was on top form, one save from a point blank header being especially of note - and with his help and a 100% effort from everybody we weathered the storm. Management finally came to its senses and returned the formation to that which had ended the first half so well and suddenly we were back on top. The critical goal came on the hour mark, Mottley floated an angled ball into the box and Owen rose high and powerfully to power home a header. Cue much celebrating – and it was deserved as it was the key moment of the second half. From then on Rosendale continued to push, but we absorbed the pressure well and broke with more of a cutting edge. Kieren C earned the third goal as he latched onto a through ball from Eccles – or was it Monks ? – anyway- he latched onto it and was bundled over in the box. Mottley seized the ball to avoid unseemly debate over who should take the spot lick and rolled it calmly into the bottom corner 10 minutes later - in another decisive break - Ryan Alston picked up a clearance from Handley and after skipping past a couple of defenders laid it into the path of Mr Mottley. Mottley did what he does best, stopped, had a think, scratched his a* then burst past the full back and leathered it into the bottom corner. db PS. We were STILL top of the League after todays games** (May not be by next time we play !!)
Sat. 7th Jan 2012		We played a friendly against Garstang FC of the West Lancs League - Click here to Read Match Report.

Sat. 14th Jan 2012	V	Mostonians (h) 0 - 1 (ht.0-0) scorers : -
		A disappointing start to the new year, though the performance didn’t really reflect the result in a very tight, top of the table clash. A draw would probably have been a fair result as 2 contrasting styles for the most part cancelled each other out. Broughton for once played a measured possession game, having the ball for relatively long spells, but unable to find the final killer pass to create an attempt on goal. Mostonians were content to sit back and hit on the break with very quick forwards and Lever and Owen in particular were outstanding for the whole game. Harrington and Monks at full back had to be fully alert and judicious about when to join into the attack and our only real scares of the first half came when lightening breaks found gaps where full backs are supposed to be. One chance was wasted and Coulton came to our rescue on the other occasion. In attack, Howarth worked hard to hold the line and Murch, Cummins and Eccles supported well to join things up. Goal-less at the break we stepped up the pace and played well for the second half. Howarth turned well only to see his shot come back off the post, Eccles had 2 chances that fell to his weaker side and a number of goalmouth scrambles could – on another day - have seen us 2 goals to the good In the end the game was settled by our only slack play of the 2nd half. A poor pass at the front saw midfield committed out of position and hesitancy at the back gave the Moston forward time to react to the initial save to his first attempt. We pushed but couldn’t get back on level terms. db
Sat. 18th Feb 2012	V	Roach Dynamoes (h) 2 - 4 (ht.1-1) (KO: 2.30pm) scorers : J. Mottley 2
		Well this was a disappointing restart to the season. No game for 8 weeks may have played a part, but almost everybody was way off the pace and only Mottley and Eccles emerged with any sort of credit. We reached half time at 1-1, but had rarely found any fluency or control - despite having more than our share of possession and despite Roach being no more than average opponents. Roach took the lead following a period of defensive play that at best could be described as disjointed. We equalized under equally chaotic circumstances, Mottley being too casual with one chance , but just redeeming himself to poke home a resulting loose ball. Mottley then came close with a fizzing shot that rattled the post and Howarth had one effort well saved, but that was it for anything of note. Management pretended to influence the game with a Fergie style half time team talk. This made me feel better for all of 30 seconds - the time taken for a dozy midfield to allow a Roach attack to bypass them. Sadly defensively we were equally dozy and that set the pattern of play for the 2nd half. We had plenty of the ball but did sod all with it. Substitutions were made but frankly nothing seemed to work. We did start getting back into the game a little, but at that point Monks got sent off and that about sealed things. Mottley did manage to pull one goal back when he seized upon some confusion in the Roach defence but even that failed to inspire us. It needs to improve again boys. db
Sat. 25th Feb 2012	V	Prairie United (a) 7 - 3 (ht.2-2) scorers : J. Mottley 4, N. Eccles 3
		Well we finally got the second half of the season under way, though for an hour it was harder than in should be. Part of the problem came from the number of enforced changes that had to be made just to get a team out – especially in defence where Harrington, Chris Howarth and Mike Buxton played well individually but took a while to get things together as a unit. To make things harder Prairie play with 2 fast forwards and we took a while to get control of the situation. By the time we did - we were 2 goals down. After 30 minutes we started to exert more control, and slowly we clawed our way back. Rawsthorn came close as he threw himself at a Mottley cross and just failed to connect, but then Mottley himself got the better of his defender and poked it in himself. 5 minutes later Motters was upended and converted the penalty himself. Monks headed just past the post, Mr M blasted a couple of free kicks into some nearby shrubbery and we came in at half time all level. The second half started well. The aforementioned defence were well on top, Rick Murch wielded more control in midfield and Alston and Cummins down the left began to find more space and push forward. We were stunned as Prairie retook the lead – against the run of play - but it just spurred us on and the last half hour was a romp . Jamie Wareing came on down the right and his pace took him past his defender and into the box. Unselfishly the ball was squared and Eccles casually stroked it home with his normally unsoiled right boot!! The goals continued to come. A Coulton “big boot” was seized on by Mottley and duly lashed home, Mottley himself dispossessed a defender and the outcome was inevitable. Eccles then started to enjoy himself and though I can’t remember what the goals were like – I can assure you they were both jolly good. db
Sat. 3rd Mar 2012	V	Tyldesley United (h) 0 - 4 (ht.0-1) scorers : -
		After a sparkling last 45 minutes last week we were hopeful of continuing in the same vein against a team running us close in the league, but it never quite worked out that way. The first half was close - and though we were never really near to top form we stayed in the game by working as a unit and giving away little in the form of chances. In truth we probably had the better of the chances - albeit with a lesser share of possession. Conceding a goal just before halftime was a blow, but not one that seemed to be beyond our ability to recover from, however we really never got going and the game continued to slide away. Nobody played especially poorly and nobody could be accused of not trying, but somehow Tyldesley played with a determination and character that we never came close to matching. You will notice that nobody gets a mention - and that is because nobody was good enough or bad enough on the day to warrant a name check - and there, dear reader, you have an apt summary of our performance. db
Sat. 17th Mar 2012	V	O. Blackburnians (h) 2 - 6 (ht.-) scorers : P. Harford, J. Mottley
		No Match report submitted - reporter depressed !!
Sat. 24th Mar 2012	V	Radcliffe Town (a) 1 - 2 (ht.0-1) scorers : P. Monks
		Well the poor run goes on , but in marked contract to last week when I couldn't find any enthusiasm to write a report , this weeks performance was extremely pleasing in terms of team spirit and collective effort. Ok we lost - and that's not what we are here for- but you can lose with dignity or collapse with no team effort like we did last week. The build up to the game continued to be marked by selection problems- the problem lying in finding enough players to turn up and play. Kieren Cummins failed to turn up for the 2nd time in 3 weeks - and consequently a-la tevez - wont play for me ever again - no really I am totally pissed off by these people who cant be arsed. It's starting to feel like some people play only if they cannot think of anything better to do - commitment is needed. The last minute no show meant that Rafa was a late call up from the thirds - and with the team restored to 11 members we set off. Understandably we started the game on the back foot and conceded a slightly sloppy goal, but as the half wore on we began to look a more solid outfit. Chris Fillngham joined Owen at centre back and this allowed Rob Lever to move to full back. Lever looked much more relaxed and looked comfortable in defensive duties and was able to raid forward throughout the game. As the half went on we started to threaten more . Eccles began to find space and released Rafa and Harrington to break forward and come close. McHugh then twice got behind the Radcliffe defence and just failed to find his target with cross balls. Ten minutes into the 2nd half we went 2 down as midfield and defence both failed to pick up a fast runner and sadly he finished well. Far from letting our heads go down the team rallied and we had a strong final 30 minutes that should have seen us rescue a point. Schultz began to find space down the left and strong crosses caused mild panic in the opposition defence - but we just lacked the killer touch. We scored with 20 minutes to go, Pete M meeting a long cross with the determination that he had displayed throughout the game and for the last quarter we had a number of chances, Eccles and Rafa both coming close. McHugh had to end a solid stint through injury - bringing on manager Birch for last last period, hardly a move likely to scare the opposition but we continued to push and just came up short. Ryan Alston in centre midfield was probably our best performer on the day, working hard and keeping things ticking along. db
Sat. 31st Mar 2012	V	Rochdale St. Clements Res (h) 0 - 3 (ht.0-1) scorers : -
		It's getting towards the end of the season and we are running out of anything much that's insightful, witty or interesting to say. That being the case i shall follow the lead of my esteemed colleague - the 3rd team manager. As a result this report will be totally lateral with a mass of random information and referring to the game in question only in passing and to hurl equally random insults at whatever poor sod happens to amuse him - usually Simon. Did I mention before that we have now had 41 different payers actually take the field for Broughton first team - surely a record in any league or division. 26 of them have played in the seven games since mid January and this may explain why a team that was going well and top before Christmas can have had such a dramatic change in fortune. For this game we had only 4 people remaining from the pre Christmas squad. One small piece of good news was the return of Finney - albeit bearing a remarkable resemblance to Osamah bin laden and Handley bearing more a resemblance to my dad - with his bad back. As I surveyed the sea of new faces in the dressing room we knew we could be in for a hard game - Rochdale are running high in the league - and we spent most of the pre-match warm up trying to learn each others names - but despite this we performed pretty well - actually very well in spells - and though we went in a goal down at half time, we could easily have been a goal up. Cox and Tracey in midfield looked collected and controlled and Monks and Fillingham at the back kept things in shape. Rafa Czecak (or something like that) twice came close to applying a finishing touch to great moves, Eccles shot just over and even Cooper had a couple of pot shots. The second half was pretty even, though Rochdale became stronger as the half progressed. The key difference was that under pressure Rochdale were just that bit more organised and this started to tell as we pushed on to try to equalise. Fillingham found himself exposed and fouled his man to concede a penalty. Coulton just failed to save the spot kick, but then over the next 10 mins twice saved the day to deny one on one situations with Rochdale attackers. Finney came on to try to add more control to our forward pay and it immediately had an effect first linking well with Eccles before shooting just wide then the same combination saw Eccles come close. We aren't as bad as our current form would suggest and though the title hopes are gone, we should look to complete the season in style. - DB
Sat. 7th Apr 2012	V	Thornleigh (a) 1 - 1 (ht.1-0) scorers : J. Mottley
		Avid fans of this humble column seemed highly exercised by the mass of player statistics given in last weeks effort. In a mass of tweetys and other elecytronic stuff we had Jose (from Madrid) asking for a master-class in the art of managing a squad of strangers and Pepe (from Barcelona) who was keen to know about the art of Management of a virtual team- ie a team whose player are never there. The later course would involve all the Broughton managers - since all of us are equally adept at this difficult technique. For this weeks game we had 9 changes from the 12 players who played last week ( yes - you did read that right) and our new lads brought the total of players who have played 1st team this year to 45 Amazingly we started the game well. Dan Spensely re-living past glories (he is the last Broughton player to play for the League representative team) looked the most skilful player on the pitch and under his prompting Rob Cooper and Mottley up front had the edge over the Thornleigh defenders. We had an edge , but no real cutting edge and in fact our most dangerous moments came from a Coulton big boot and our ability to outpace the defenders. We took the lead from one such route 1 move. Coulton launched one forward, Cooper met it and his one touch lay off freed Mottley to power forward and finish with style. It nearly worked again 2 minutes later, but Mottley's shot went just wide - and we went in at half time with a deserved lead. We never really got going in the second half. Defensively we were efficient, but that apart we never really got a hold on the game. Thornleigh had a lot of pressure but generally we worked hard to keep shots to long range - which made it all the more disappointing that we conceded a very soft goal from a corner. When a corner drops in in the six yard box uncontested more than one defender needs to review their contribution to that situation. As it happened Ryan Alston came close to saving the situation, but just failed to contest the chance on the goal line. This seemed to spur us on and for the last 15 minutes we did look more dangerous. Finney made a right balls of one chance, but then had a few good moments combining well with other attackers. Rob Lever came the closest to stealing the points - his header from a Finney cross was just saved by the keeper. - DB
Thu. 12th Apr 2012	V	Ainsworth (h) 4 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : R. Alston, N. Eccles, A. Chattel, R. Cooper
		A whole lot of "at lasts" here. At last we won again of course, but also at last - we had a team that looked vaguely like the one fielded the week before and also made no dafty mistakes. We started ok and got stronger through the game (another "at last"). Treacey, Alston and Monks looked in control in midfield, restricting Ainsworth to longish ball to quick forwards. The forwards were playing right on our defensive line, but we were sharp enough to deal with the threat and slowly start to threaten ourselves. We had half chances - Eccles in particular - but the nearest we came to scoring was a great 25 yard free kick from Nathen Russell that left the keeper for dead but cracked against the crossbar. Amazingly the same thing happened again only 10 minutes later from almost the same spot and again the bar was left bruised. We took the lead on 40 minutes. Good build up play on the right between Harrington and Lever saw Monks lash the ball goal ward. The lack of pace in the shot confused the keeper, Ryan Alston reacted quickest to a loose ball and Cooper finished well from Alstons set up. The second half was much more comfortable as we got a grip early and never let it go. The second goal was fortunate. The ref saw a foul that nobody else did and Ryan Alston finished well for a belated first goal of the season and this was followed by a very deserved goal for Eccles to secure the victory. Best of the lot came from Chattel to cap a very assured looking last 30 minutes. So we salvaged a bit of glory on a great night for playing soccer. Next game a night match away at Rochdale - and we are already missing Owen, Eccles, Cooper and Treacey. Great cheers !! - Doug
Tue. 17th Apr 2012	V	Rochdale St. Clements Res (a) 1 - 2 (ht.0-0) scorers : R. Lever
		We started the game with 6 centre backs in the team - one of them in goals - so it was hardly surprising that this was a very sound defensive display - but first an update on the inter team race to be the first to play 50 different players this season. Mr Winn - of 3rd team fame - seemed confident that they had this title pretty much sown up as of last week, but I am proud to say that my boys are putting in a strong late burst and with the recent additions of Mr Chattle last week and Eddie Braithwaite and Gilly last night we can now claim 48. Still one behind but we do have 3 games left. With the aforementioned slight imbalance in the team, with Pete Monks in goal being the most unbalanced, we started with a Chelsea- like 4-5-1 solid midfield, and Mottley upfront. This worked well for the first 10 minutes until, Mottley (whose pre match warm up consisted of a chat and an extra fag) paid the penalty and hobbled off with hamstring issues. Cue Eddie Braithwaite to enter stage left into midfield and Matt Ryan to replace the blinding pace of Mottley with his more subtle, prosaic qualities up front. Rochdale had the balance of play and possession throughout the game, but we were exceptional, defensively, throughout. The back 4 of Russell, Gill, Handley and Harrington looked solid all game and with midfield working hard to close down we restricted Rochdale to only a couple of half chances from open play in the whole game. Going forward we struggled to create any long periods of pressure, but when we broke forward we did so with pace and commitment and really had at least as many good chances to score. Ryan Alston revelled in the centre midfield role, Rob Lever had his best game of the season at right midfield and Braithwaite and Fillingham provided the metaphorical "grunt" in the middle to keep things solid. As time went on we did get a better hold of the game and Matt Ryan started to rediscover his old "up front" way of playing and the focus that this gave us allowed Alex Alston to start getting on the ball more. To the action Nathen Russel's return and rehabilitation to the squad continues to give us dead ball options and in the 2nd half we went close from one free kick (narrowly over) and a couple of corners that again Fillingham and Alex Alston almost converted . Corners were our undoing however. Rochdale went ahead on the hour when for probably the only time in the game we switched off and allowed their big centre half to get a free header on goal. We equalised 15 minutes later. Ryan Alston dropped a free kick on the head of Fillingham, Fillingham headed on and Rob Lever burst in at the back post to get a deserved reward for a great performance. It looked like we would see the game out but with 10 minutes to go Rochdale worked a short corner move. Monks saved brilliantly from the initial shot, but was powerless when the loose ball fell to the feet of a Rochdale man 6 yards out. Bugger it. DB
Sat. 21st Apr 2012	V	Bolton Wyresdale (h) 0 - 1 (ht.0-1) scorers : -
		No new players made their debut this week- a disappointing result that probably means that the title for most players used in a season will rest with Mr Winn and his 3rd team boys. We approached the game after a trouble free Saturday morning - for once the Broughton managers did not have to spend all morning trying to re-arrange the teams. It couldn't last, Richard Murch then rung 30 minutes before kick off to enquire of his whereabouts pretending to be working - whereas instead was still pissed from the previous night. We did start however with a decent line up and were very unlucky to again get nothing from the game. We started with a 5 man midfield, meaning that we did concede more of the possession, but hardly conceded a chance on goal all game. The only slight moment of hesitation was our undoing. We failed to close down a shot from the edge of the box and it proved to be the only goal of the game. Apart from a couple of chances in the last 5 minutes - when we were overextending to save the game, Bolton had no real attempts on goal. We on the other hand slowly understood how to play this formation and as last week got stronger as the game went on. In the 1st half Monks, Fillingham and Russell all went very close and we should have been level at the break. The 2nd half was even better-a light bulb of understanding and self belief went on and everybody started to get involved with the game. Down the right Harrington and Lever combined well to exploit the space . Down the left Russell and Alex Alston developed an understanding and Finney again looks like he is enjoying playing the game to augment undoubted talent. Adrian Owen pushed forward from the back to give the extra man in midfield and this freed midfield to move forward. Everybody played well but our top 2 guys were again Ryan Alston making things tick in midfield and Matt Handley who dealt immaculately with any defensive threat. We pushed, we threatened, we went close but somehow despite almost total control we just couldn't get the goal back. Coulton had to deal well with a couple of efforts in the dying minutes but the score doesn't reflect the game - db
Wed. 2nd May 2012	V	Hindley Juniors (a) 0 - 7 (ht.-) scorers : -
		Match report will be published here when/if submitted.
Sat. 5th May 2012	V	Bolton Wyresdale (a) 1 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : M. Finney
		It retrospect it probably wasn't a good idea to have the club end of season do on the night before a game. Enthusiasm to play was in short supply the night before and at least one key player needed to be dragged out of bed to make up the numbers on the day of the game. That being said our last game in the Lancashire Amateur League proved to be a great team effort and a a worthy win - and it helped get rid of the sour taste created by our enforced and pointless (literally and figuratively) midweek trip to Hindley. We started with Chris Bell up front, Grundy at right back and new recruit Darren Mitchinson in midfield, but despite the changes we began on the front foot looking threatening from the very first minute when a good move involving Grundy, Mitchinson, Lever and Bell saw the latter just fail to connect with Lever's cross. The first half was a contrast of styles. Bolton played the ball about a lot in midfield, but basically achieved little in the way of goal threat. We worked hard to get the ball wide and up to Bell and Finney to exploit space - and of the 2 methods ours seemed to be the more effective. We took the lead after 30 minutes when a great angled ball from Nathen Russell caused panic in the Bolton defence. The ball broke to Finney and from 10 yards it was decisively buried in the Bolton net and we ended the half on top with Lever and Bell again coming close to a final touch on creative midfield work. The second half was mostly about organisation and defence. Bolton were pushing for promotion and as we tired they pushed on and committed more to attack. We had our own moments, Alex Alston down the left and Grundy and and Lever down the right, and our own chances (Bell's Rooney - like overhead kick being the highlight for entertainment) - but mainly it was Bolton on the attack. Defending is an under-rated skill but done well it is every bit as gratifying to watch as any number of goal attempts. Ade Owens probably doesn't remember much of the game - but if you are reading this Ade - you played great. Also on top form defensively were Matt Handley and Nathen Russell - and all in all we defended well without recourse to stupid fouls to cause threats from free kicks. When Bolton did create chances they found Paul Coulton in unbeatable form and on the one occasion Coulton went walkabout, Pete Monks rescued the situation with a points saving double block to goal bound shots. So we come to an end of a chaotic season. We started against Ainsworth (who finished bottom) with 6 3rd/4th team lads - and lost. This game apart we ended with an enforced midweek game against Hindley (who came top) again with 5 4th team lads - and lost. Between that we used 50 players, somehow at the half way mark we were top of the league, but by the end we were down to 10th. All things considered you would have to say it was an opportunity lost. Still - there is always next season. - db

Sat. 20th Aug 2011	V	O. Blacks 'A' (h) 2 - 1 (ht.-) scorers : A. Needham, J. Mottley
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Sat. 27th Aug 2011	V	O. Standians Res (a) 2 - 3 (ht.-) scorers : R. Craword, M. Mierzejewski
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Sat. 3rd Sept 2011	V	Prestwich Res (h) 0 - 7 (ht.-) scorers : -
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Sat. 10th Sept 2011	V	Rossendale Ams 'B' (h) 1 - 3 (ht.-) scorers : S. Rawsthorne
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Sat. 17th Sept 2011	V	Oldham Hulmeians Res (h) 2 - 2 (ht.-) scorers : C. Butler, A. Chattel
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Sat. 1st Oct 2011	V	Horwich RMI Res (a) 3 - 1 (ht.0-1) scorers : C. Butler, A. Needham, J. Seddon
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Sat. 8th Oct 2011	V	Moston Res (a) 1 - 1 (ht.-) scorers : A. Needham
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Sat. 15th Oct 2011 LAL Cup Rd 1	V	Old Blackburnians Res (a) 3 - 1 (ht.0-1) scorers : W. Omerod, A. Chattel, C. Butler
		Great win for the 2nds in a match that nearly didn't happen!!. As a few of you know we turned up for this fixture a couple of weeks ago, and as the referee decided not to show, under suspicious circumstances the game was called off. Then to our utter disbelief we were told we had been thrown out the cup for apparently not wanting to play the fixture. Which was a load of xxxx. Why would we drive to Blackburn, get stripped and stand on the pitch for an hour warming up??? Well it was obvious to me Old Blacks were scared, and so they should be!!!. After some good behind the scenes work by Broughton's top dogs we were reinstated. Before the game we knew it was going to be a tough, as Old Blackburnians are a few leagues above us, but as you can see were have been unbeaten for the last 3 weeks and believed we could get something from this game. As the game started Old Blacks looked the better team. But as the game went on it became a much more even contest. Unfortunately after a mix up between the defenders and keeper Old Blacks went 1 nil up and that's how it stayed till half time. After some words of encouragement from the gaffer we soon started to take control of the second half, and the pressure paid off with Ormerod slotting the ball into the corner after a nice flowing team move. Although we were now playing some good stuff, occasionally Old Blacks had some chances which Grundy dealt with easily with help from his massive defence!, smallest being 6' 3''. As the game looked like it was going to penalties we took a deserved lead from the penalty spot as their defender made a world class save after the keeper was lobbed by Bell. As Broughton's best ever penalty taker (Seddon) had just gone off it was down to Chattell to smash home the penalty, which he did.....just - lol. After this it was all one way traffic as Old Blacks ten men was no match for Broughton's 11. With just a few minutes remaining Butler clipped a nice shot over the advancing keeper to seal the win. Good performance all round especially the defence and man of the match McGill who looks like he has played centre half all his life. Don't see why we cant build on this fantastic performance and climb up the league table starting with Accrington on Saturday!!!! exactly!!!!. JS
Sat. 29th Oct 2011	V	Bolton Wyresdale Res (a) 11 - 0 (ht.3-0) scorers : J. Seddon 4, C. Butler 3, A. Chattel 2, S. Mitchell, R. Czerczak
		Full of confidence from our recent excellent performances we went into this game hoping to extend our unbeaten streak to 5 games. But things didn't go to plan at first with 3 players dropping out early sat morning. But after some frantic ringing around we managed to scrape together a bare 11 to take to Bolton. Which included two third teamers and a fourth teamer. Although we knew Bolton were bottom of the league we didn't go into the game thinking it was going to be easy as they pretty much had the same team as last season when we drew 1 a piece. So with a patched up team, we started with a 4-3-3 formation which included a couple of of hung-over-to-death players (Pommy n Lowdy). As the game started we got off to a flier thanks to a very good finish from our Polish energy king Czerczak aka Duracell. Not long after that Butler cut in from the right hand side and slotted the ball past the keeper from the edge of the box. At this point we were cruising and were unlucky not to go 3 nil up as Lowdy had one chalked off for offside which seemed harsh as the ball had been flicked on by one of their players. Lowdy again was unlucky not to score as his rasping 30 yard strike clipped the bar. We did eventually go 3 nil up after some neat one two play down the right hand side between Seddon and Bell resulted in Bell whipping a good ball into the back post where Chattel met it with his shin to get our 3rd and that's how it stayed till half time. It could even have been 5 or 6 at half time if Butler had put away 2 volleys that Seddon deliciously crossed in to him. Even at 3 nil we knew we had to carry on with the same lung busting intensity as we did in the first half and we soon reaped the rewards with a quick fire double from Butler and Chattel (Chattel somehow scoring from 30 yards with his shin!!!). Shortly after Mitchell put Seddon clean though who unselfishly squared the ball to Butler to complete his hat-trick. After this it was a case of how many we could get. After terrorising Bolton's fullbacks Seddon and Butler decided to swap flanks which resulted in Seddon coolly flicking the ball over the advancing keeper after a cheeky through ball by Lowdy. Switching back to the left Seddon picked up his 2nd ghosting in at the back post to tap in a Chattel cross (again with his shin lol). Mitchell then decided to get in on the act with a ferocious strike from 1 yard out which nearly split the net, after his previous two shots that hit the corner flag it was a wonder he got it on target!!!. Seddon competed the rout with his 3rd and 4th with two identical scrumptious finishes after two defence splitting passes from Pommy and Mitchell. Admittedly Bolton were not the best today but we played good solid hard working football from start to finish and deserved the huge score line and although it was our front 6 players that got all the goals the defence of Bell, Iddon (Faz),McGill, Pommy and goalie Grundy played fantastic and gave us a solid platform to build from. Hopefully we can keep this run going!!!! JS.
Sat. 19th Nov 2011	V	O. Standians Res (h) 3 - 1 (ht.1-1) scorers : C. Butler, A. Needham 2
		A miracle occurred this Saturday!!! We had a home game that wasn't postponed!!!. With confidence running high throughout the team, we went into this game believing we could take all 3 points. Although we only had a bare 11, it was a strong line up with Needham coming back into the team after a month's absence. Again starting with a 4-3-3 formation the game begun. Unfortunately we got of to a poor start, with sloppy passes, weak challenges and a few people wandering out of position. This continued for the first twenty minutes or so and Old Standians capitalised when we conceded a penalty from which they scored. This was the wake up call we needed. With a little encouragement from Bell (when i say encouragement, i mean full blown screaming!!!!) we seemed to get are act together a started to play some decent footy. When Seddon clipped a cross into the back post Butler looked like he had equalised but for a fantastic save from their keeper. But Butler was not to be denied!!, from an Iddon clearance the ball bounced over their defence then comically over the keeper, where Butler had anticipated and had a tap in for us to go into the break all square. The second half of the the game was completely different to the first, with everyone playing nice simple balls from back to front. As the second half went on Needham got better and better, terrorising their defence. Needham's constant pressure paid dividends when his pressure forced their defence into a mistake and he smartly slotted the ball past their oncoming keeper. At this point there was only going to be one winner. Lowdy after putting a Scotty Parker-esque performance in the centre of the park looked knackered, luckily for us a sub turned up in the shape of Dicky Murch. As soon as he came on, his fresh but veiny legs made an instant impact. From a free-kick Murch skinned their centre half and set himself up for a shot, but wobbly knee syndrome kicked in and he fluffed the shot but luckily for us Needham was on hand to lash in the loose ball and make it 3-1. Standians didn't even have a shot second half due to good tracking from our midfield trio of Mitchell, Harrington and Lowde and fantastic defending from the back 4 especially man of the match Iddon (everyone knew man of the match was Needham, but we didnt want the birthday boy to have a strop :-). All in all it was a good performance, but i think we went into the game a little over confident and could have been punished if we'd played a better team. Roll on next sat to take our undefeated streak to 7 games!!!!!!!!!!! UP THE REDS!!!!!!!!!! - JS
Sat. 26th Nov 2011	V	Oldham Hulmeians Res (a) 3 - 4 (ht.1-2) scorers : C. Butler, A. Chattell, J. Seddon
		With a long trip to 2nd placed Oldham confidence was high due to our recent wins. As we arrived we took one look at the pitch and knew it wasn't going to be a pretty game as there wasn't a blade of grass on it!!! and it was waterlogged right down the middle. Game should never have been on. But not to make excuses it was the same for both teams, although our quick one-two passing game had to go out the window. Again we got off to a slow start, reacting 2nd to every ball and we were punished when Oldham found space down our right hand side and from the resulting cross scored to make it 1 nil, and again after some sloppy defending they went two nil up. This was frustrating as only after gifting them the 2 goal lead we started to play some decent footy. Some nice 1-2 work down the left hand side between Seddy, Pommy and Murch resulted in Murch passing the ball past their keeper only for Butler to sneak in and pinch it on the line for us to go into the break 1 behind. The start of the second half was a mirror of the first, with us leaking two very avoidable goals. This forced us to press and attack if we wanted anything out of the game. This tactic seemed to work as we pushed Oldham onto the back foot for the remainder of the game with wave after wave of attack, but we were lacking that extra quality in the final 3rd. After another tactical switch Ormerod came on and added a bit of pace on the wing and after a sumptuous one two with Seddy whipped in a delightful ball where Chattell was on hand to get in front of their centre half and poke the ball past the keeper (when i say poke, i really mean tripped and shinned it in). With the next attack we got a corner and with some quick thinking between Marchuck and Seddy took a short corner. Seddon noticing the keeper was off his line deliciously curled the ball past the stranded keeper to make in 4-3, unfortunately time was now not on our side and we lost the game. Although we lost the game, there was some positives to take away, main one being our battling effort after we went 4-1 down, last year we would probably have folded and conceded more. Lets hope we can pick ourselves up for next week and get back to winning ways. - JS
Sat. 11th Feb 2012	V	Astley Bridge (h) 3 - 0 (ht.2-0) scorers : J. Mottley 3
		After nearly 3 months without a game, feelings of shock and anticipation were on the horizon when news of the game being on was announced. After assembling a relatively strong starting 11 we knew we could well be rusty due to the longevity of the period without a game. Cos of all this a warm-up was in order which was ran by 'Shin city' Chattel. The warm-up seemed to calm people down, regain warmth in toes/legs and got everybody in the mood. The game kicked off and something awfully strange happened, we started the game very well!, with some neat interplay in midfield and attack, plus the midfield and defence were winning every second ball. The front 3 of Butler, Mottley and Seddon looked lively and should have taken an early lead when Mottley was slipped through by Seddon, this brought a good save from Astleys keeper. This pressure continued, great link up play between The front 3 resulted in a few off target wayward shots from Butler, Eccles and Mottley. The first 20 minutes was all Broughton, the midfield of Eccles, Lowde and Chattel were dominant and just as it looked that we couldn't take advantage of the early onslaught, a player they call the eagle eye locksmith aka the 'EEL' took it down on his chest on the halfway line and clipped an inch perfect through ball to Mottley who finished with aplomb. The game then got a little scrappy, with the opposition trying to frustrate us with some horror tackles. Despite this we remained disciplined and managed to sneak another just before half time, a long clearance from Chattel with (you guessed it) his shin - put Mottley racing clear and he coolly finished with ease. The defence of Ormerod, Pomfret and the fearless trojans of McGill and Iddon looked very comfortable throughout the half. Half time was only 2-0 but we deserved a lot more, the manager 'Triple B' (Broughton Brawler Bell) set off with a tirade of abuse to galvanise the lads. Second half started in unusual fashion as the opposition got a man injured and this meant us playing against 10 men in the second half, however Eccles who was very solid in the first half was replaced by Monks so in a way it felt like 10 v 10 lol. The second half was a slightly dire affair, with a multitude of passes going astray, against stronger opposition with a full 11 we could have easily been punished. Just when Astley thought things couldnt get any worse 1 of their wingers spat his dummy out and they were down to 9 men. There were chances galore for Broughton as Pomfret should of scored from 3 yards, Monks cutting in on his left passed it to the keeper, Mottley also cutting in from the left decided to give them a goal kick. Seddon started to tear away at the right back and got free-kick after free kick. There was also a glorious chance for Butler to keep his scoring streak going when Seddon weighted a beautifully angled cross which sent Butler clear, only for his shot 2 go inches wide. Just when it looked to be staying at 2-0 the 'EEL' got involved again, taking it passed a defender and displaying excellent peripheral vision as he unselfishly slipped in the eager Mottley for another hat-trick. It was nearly 4-0 when Lowde saw the keeper off his line from 35 yards and his rasping audacious effort deserved a goal but (thankfully) the keeper managed to get a sly palm to tip it onto the post, (would never of heard the end of it if it went in). At full time there were mixed emotions as a 3-0 score line flattered Astley Bridge, it could and should have been 10-0, in spells we played some high quality stuff, yet we took out toes off the accelerator. Richard 'It took a bobble' Grundy didn't have much to do but looked safe as terraces, the defence looked solid, in particular McGill who had a tremendous game, everybody played their part in a good win considering the 10 week layoff. Lets just hope the fixtures keep coming...along with the points! Man of the match Nick Lowde aka the EEL!!!! - JS
Sat. 25th Feb 2012	V	Horwich Victoria Res (a) 1 - 0 (ht.0-0) scorers : C. Murch
		After last weeks good - but not great performance we knew we would have to up our game against Horwich if we wanted the 3 points. Horwich are above us in the league so it was vital we won to close in on the 2nd and 3rd spots. With the obligatory drop outs (mainly the EEL!!!) who went to watch 'el classico' (Bury v Rochdale) we were left with a bare 11. Fortunately for us it was a strong 11! Welcoming back big dog Chris Murch. We knew we would be in for a battle as the pitch, which barely had grass on it, was a bobbly bog!!!. Again after a good warm up, we got off to a fairly good start playing good neat football. Horwich probably shaded possession as both teams cancelled each other out for long periods of the first half. Butler and Ormerod looked particularly dangerous having gone close on a couple of occasions after being slipped through by Chattle. Half time arrived and i think both teams were happy with the score line. After some positive half time words from the boss we went into the second half believing we could could get the win and from the whistle we were on top. It wasn't long until we took a deserved lead when Shultz played the ball into Seddon on the half way line who swivelled past his marker and played a luscious ball over the on-rushing defence for big dog Murch to latch onto and calmly slot the ball into the bottom corner with his RIGHT!!! foot (which he usually just uses to keep upright). After this we kept pressing to try and get another goal to put the game out of reach. Horwich however soon realised they needed to up their game if they wanted anything from the game and began to put us under some serious pressure and to credit the lads, we battled hard to keep a clean sheet, the midfield trio of Murch, Harford and Chattle played fantastic marshalling just in front of the defence as well as all three strikers tracking back putting there bit in for the team, not to mention the defence of Bell, Iddon, McGill and Shultz who battled like gladiators throwing themselves into every challenge. Iddon was battling so hard he decided to jump in front of a clearance from McGill that was so ferocious it knocked him unconscious. After being out for a few seconds he got to his feet and starting accusing the Horwich players elbowing him when in fact it was combination of McGill and a pigs bladder that did the damage!!! lol. As the game got stretched chances started to appear but we were unable to take them and man of the match Ormerod started showing some class touches and holding the ball up, allowing the midfield and defence to take a breather. All in all it was a fantastic performance and probably the best performance of the season due to the conditions and the battling never say die attitude of the players, who all gave 100%. Same again next week!!!. - JS
Sat. 3rd Mar 2012	V	O. Blackburnians 'A' (a) 1 - 2 (ht.1-1) scorers : N. Lowde
		Another week and more reshuffling required as injuries and recalls meant the line-up needed completely re-jigging. We ended up starting with a new goalkeeper, a back four of Bell, Iddon, Schultz and Seddon, a midfield trio of Lowde, Chattel and Harford and a front 3 of Butler, Ormerod and Needham. On paper it was a strong 11 and we started the game with a decent tempo and the midfield was winning every ball and every tackle (few strong ones from Lowde and Iddon) and defensively without the reliable McGill (Who had bottled it and flown to Ireland) we looked solid. We went 1-0 up after 15 minutes through a well worked corner, Harford's in-swinger found Lowde (aka The EEL) at the back post who leapt like a trout and powered in a 6 yard header. After this we looked dangerous in every move, and without exaggerating we should have been 4-0 up. Firstly Seddon lofted a cheeky ball to Butler who was through however skewed a shot well wide, next a defence splitter from The EEL put Needham clean through, using his pace and power he was clean through, nobody was catching him, but unfortunately Needham completely missed the ball when shooting. Chattel and Harford linked up well to this time put Ormerod clear who again used his pace to get effect, but the finish wasn't there once again, his tame left foot going straight to the goalkeeper from 6 yards. Just as we were hoping we wouldn't rue these squandered chances, a defensive lapse 20 seconds before half time made it 1-1 and Old Blackburnians had the lift and to be honest the lucky break they were looking for. At half-time we knew the game was there for the winning, however we didn't show any signs of wanting to win in the second half. An awful decision decided the game when the defence cleared out well from a free kick, we waited for a whistle that never came, nobody could quite yet believe that 3 of the opposition players that were 4-5 yards offside weren't flagged. The ref allowed play on and the Old Blacks forward tapped into an empty net, it wasn't at all deserved but what was more worrying than the referees vision of offside, was our lack of fight in the second half. After playing some nice stuff in the first half from defence to midfield to attack, we just decided to go long on every ball and although the pitch wasn't great, our hold-up play was worse. We never really got going in the second half and we seemed to miss a vocal leader, everyone was flat in the second half and we need to show more fight and belief if we want to climb into the top 4 positions. Overall we deserved at least a point in reflection, but our second half display wasn't like the Broughton we know! Onwards and hopefully upwards! - JS
Sat. 10th Mar 2012	V	Horwich Victoria Res (h) 2 - 1 (ht.1-0) scorers : N. Eccles 2
		After last week's disappointing result we knew we had to come back strong this week to have any chance of finishing in the top 3. For the first time this season we had two subs, which is a nice change from a bare 11. The gaffer thought the team needed a shake up after last weeks poor performance, so with a few people playing in unfamiliar positions the game kicked off. We got off to a relatively slow start as the Horwich midfield quickly started to dominated our midfield which pressed us back for the first 10-15 minutes or so, restricting us to the odd counter attack. After about 20 minutes we slowly started to get our foot on the ball and stretch the Horwich defence resulting in Bell missing a header from 1 yard out after a sublime cross from Lowde - because he thought he was going to run into the post and ruin his looks (apparently he was going out at night and wanted to look his best for all the lads down canal st). Anyway not long after Chattle (with his shin) played a dream ball through the defence which Eccles stumbled onto and somehow managed to trip over the ball which took it past the despairing keeper for a simple tap in (pidge tried to tell the lads he meant the trip but we all saw him bundle his way through like a white Titus Bramble). On to the second half. Both teams looked dangerous on the counter but the mighty defence of Lowde, McGill, Iddon and Schultz was snaffling out everything they had to offer. The lads were battling away valiantly and were rewarded with a second when the impressive Eccles toe poked his second after a scramble in the box. This seemed to spur Horwich into action and they began to cause us problems, and from a hopeful punt from one of their defenders, chaos ensued in our box which resulted in the usually solid Lowde lashing the ball into his own net. But thankfully we didn't panic and continued to look for the third and we thought we got it when Needham was brought down 30 yards out and some quick thinking between Harford and Seddon resulted in Seddon chipping the ball into the unguarded net only for the referee to pull it back as he was not ready!!! shocking decision!!!. With Horwich putting everything into getting the equaliser McGill rescued us with two or three last ditch challenges which gave us the win and the three points we deserved. Great performance from all players and especially man of the match McGillatron. - JS
Sat. 17th Mar 2012	V	Rossendale Ams 'B' (a) 5 - 3 (ht.1-2) corers : P. Monks, C. Butler, W. Ormerod, E. Marchuk, J. Seddon
		After a good performance last week we were hoping to take our good form to Rossendale, a place where historically we have not done too well. With the gaffer away on holiday Seddon stepped into the player manager role. Weirdly, we all arrived in Rossendale on time without getting lost !! So with time in hand we all got stripped and started to warm up ready for kick off. As the game kicked off we looked half asleep (and that's after a warm-up!!) and Rossendale soon took advantage and went 1 nil up within about 5 minutes due to some sloppy defending. When we did finally wake up, some nice one touch football between Chattel, Butler and Lowde resulted in Chattel whipping a gorgeous ball into the box that was met by Monks who directed the ball neatly past the stranded keeper. Just as it seemed we were going to take control of the game, Rossendale re-took the lead from a corner which could have been dealt with if we had been a bit sharper. Apart from some half chances for both teams and the EEL stinging the keeper fingers with a rasping drive nothing else really happened in 1st half although we felt unlucky to be going into the break behind. That's when "it" happened........................... In the style of Samuel L Jackson (in Deep Blue Sea), Seddon produced the most inspiring half time team talk in history that brought a tear to the eye of everyone in ear shot, even the unflappable Grundy was sobbing his heart out. With the lads buzzing with belief and confidence we returned to the field determined to get a result. Straight away we were on top but we just couldn't find that extra bit of quality in the final third to get us back in the game so with about 30 minutes remaining Seddon came off the bench for Needham who had picked up a knock after volleying their centre half so hard in the Jewels he couldn't walk straight!!!. Within moments the game was levelled after some classy football between Lowde and Chattel resulted in Iddon clipping the ball behind the defence to Butler who guided the ball past the keeper with his HEAD!!!. We didnt have to wait long after that to get in the lead. Iddon, Monks and Seddon were ripping the left side up and after another one-two between the pair Monks went down on the edge of the box, although it was a foul, he went down like he'd been shot and even let out a high frequency squeal. That said up stepped Ormerod who curled an absolute beauty into the top corner to take us into the lead for the first time. With some tiring legs on the pitch the second substitution was made bringing on Marchuk (Casper) for the solid Matty H. Marchuk soon made his presence known when he tapped in at the back post after some amazing one touch football from the whole team (the stuff we do in training seems to be paying off). But, i think, we thought we had won and took our foot of the gas and were made to pay when Iddon snapped their striker just inside the box, Penalty. Comedy moment was Scott trying to con the ref it was outside the box when he blatantly jumped out the box in full view of the ref. Grundy almost saved it but it was hit just too well. Thankfully as they were trying to steel a point it left gaps all over for us to exploit, and from an excellent ball over the top from Butler, Chattel and Seddon both beat the offside trap and Chattel unselfishly squared the ball to Seddon for an easy tap in and the three points!!! Amazing second half performance from the lads. It was hard to pick a man of the match as everyone put in a good performance but Chattle just pipped the excellent Chris Fillingham and McGill due to his hard work in the middle of the park. Same again next week!!! BOOOOOOM. - JS
Sat. 24th Mar 2012	V	Mostonians Res (h) 1 - 2 (ht.-) scorers : J. Seddon

Sat. 31st Mar 2012	V	Rochdale St. Clements 'A' (a) 0 - 2 (ht.-) scorers : -

Wed. 4th Apr 2012	V	Astley Bridge (a) 4 - 1 (ht.3-0) scorers : N. Eccles 2, C. Butler, A. Chattel

Sat. 7th Apr 2012	V	Bolton Wyresdale Res (h) 1 - 3 (ht.-) scorers : F. Farrington

Wed. 11th Apr 2012	V	Horwich Victoria Res (h) 2 - 2 (ht.1-0) scorers : C. Bell, N. Eccles

Sat. 14th Apr 2012	V	Accrington Ams Res (h) 2 - 1 (ht.-) scorers : N. Eccles, W. Ormerod

Mon. 16th Apr 2012	V	Prestwich Res (a) 1 - 2 (ht.-) scorers : J. Mottley

Sat. 21st Apr 2012	V	Accrington Ams Res (a) 1 - 1 (ht.-) scorers : A. Hayhurst

Wed. 25th Apr 2012 LAL Cup QF	V	Prestwich Res (a) 1 - 3 (ht.-) scorers : C. Butler

Sat. 28th Apr 2012	V	Dobbies (h) 4 - 4 (ht.-) scorers : C. Bell 2, C. Butler 2

Tue. 1st May 2012	V	Dobbies (a) 0 - 0 (ht.0-0) scorers : -

Thu. 3rd May 2012	V	Rochdale St. Clements 'A' (h) 1 - 0 (ht.-) scorers : W. Ormerod

Sat. 3rd Sept 2011	V	Lymm 'A' (a) 3 - 6 (ht.0-2) scorers : R. Czerczak 2, S.Rawsthorn (pen)
		Another year and another league re-organisation (which may mean we could technically claim a promotion). Having obviously decided that the official who organised the league into North and South sections had failed his geography O level the LAL dispensed with regionalisation and as a consequence our first game of the season was a 90 mile round trip to Cheshire! Harry Redknapp had bemoaned the transfer window earlier in the week (which was a bit rich given that - allegedly - he has personally benefited in the past) but what this manager would have given for the ability to utilise a transfer window two days before the game when he had only one confirmed player (himself). We travelled to Lymm with a bare 11 which included the aforesaid mentioned manager who had not played a full game for 2.5 years (and it showed), and only two players who had featured in our last game, the cup final against Old Bolts. Introductions were hurriedly made and square pegs forced into round holes (and it showed). We were playing a team long on experience and age. For the first 40 minutes we managed to stay in the game at nil nil, living on our luck at times. We also during this period rotated positions and players in an attempt to get control of the game, trying to emulate the total football of Ajax only in our case without the football. Two quick goals before half time, one the result of a cock up between our two oldest players on the pitch proving experience is overrated, put our opponents in charge. The second half got worse and only briefly did we exert any pressure. The final score frankly flattered us. Rafa (Marcin's mate) made a creditable debut, scoring twice and running for ever. Captain Quagmire converted a penalty he had won and also claimed a booking after falling out with the referee and opponents over another penalty shout which when it had not gone his way he took in his normal phlegmatic manner. McGill played well at centre half - although out of necessity as much as anything.
Sat. 24th Sept 2011 LAL Cup Rd 1	V	Mostonians 'A' (h) 2 - 1 (ht.1-1) scorers : F. Farrington, T. Lannigan
		The Thirds have become the cup kings over the last few years with two finals in three years - one won and one lost narrowly on penalties - so we had a reputation to protect. On Saturday morning we had only 10 players, but by kick off we had managed to rustle up 13 able bodies - even if at least four of them will never see 40 again. To call it a scratch team would have been an understatement, borne out by the fact that the manager had not even seen three of the players ever play before - it is probably fair to say that the manager's pot of confidence was not exactly filled to the brim. However something unusual happened once we kicked off - we looked and played like a team. The team had been set up to provide numbers in midfield (and to compensate for Lathoms range of play - sorry - to give him the space to drop into the pocket) and to make maximum usage of the Duracell-like Rafa who played up front on his own but at times it seemed like there was two of him on the pitch. We very quickly settled into the game and for the first half hour of the game played well, creating the bulk of the chances but not quite making any of them count until Farrington smote one in to put us one up. Our opponents gradually got back into the game and did their most damage when simply putting their head down and running with the ball at and through our midfield trio. Mostonians equalised with a soft goal when their large no 8 managed to create some space for himself in our box, and could have been leading at the break had not the woodwork and Major (rolling back the years) with a good diving save not intervened. In the second half we picked up the pace again and for 30 minutes were again the best side creating numerous chances, but only managed to convert one of them through Lannigan. By this stage their No 10, who had got increasingly wound up through the game, lost it in the final quarter when he attempted to "Glasgow Kiss" Pomfret - to be fair it was proper "handbags" stuff and the young referee who looked like Michael Jackson in his "Don't Blame it on the Boogie Days" treated the incident for what it was and booked their No 10. Some more officious, pompous and prattish referees would have sent him off, however the referee made the right call and for a young lad he did a good job of refereeing the game. The last ten minutes were not surprisingly a bit fraught with Mostonians applying some pressure to get an equaliser. A tactical substitution was made to up the quotient of forty plus players on the pitch, run down the clock and prevent Lathom's mate Mike expiring. The manager decided to save himself for extra time and penalties, just in case they were required but they weren't. All things considered a good performance. Mark (our Sports Journalist student who may have a job in the future bettering this drivel) looked assured at fullback in spite of our attempts to drag him down to our level, Dan who had needed oxygen and lung transplants after 20 minutes of our first game lasted this game well and should have had a brace of goals from his good work. Ian Heath and Jimmy proved an effective barrier at centre half - think Little and Large and you have their relative proportions and Rafa just kept running (and if you check I think still is). - IW
Sat. 1st Oct 2011	V	Oldham Hulmeians 'A' (a) 4 - 0 (ht.3-0) scorers : L. Adams, T. Lannigan, M. Mierzejewski 2
		The usual shambolic preparation that we have come to expect this season with two players (who shall remain nameless - Finney and Cooky) incommunicado (and I'm not referring to the hit from 80s prog rockers Marillion), junction closures on the M60 adding further delays, Faz as per usual getting lost in the Greater Manchester area and Ian Hesketh delayed by counting weapons grade uranium (or whatever else it is they do at Springfields). All this meant we had only 11 at kick off - with two optimistically named subs in Ian and Faz down on the teamsheet. This meant a hastily re-jigged formation which put two of the slowest players on the planet at centre half, one had the excuse of age, one just had an excuse. Mark Shirley returning from Afghanistan and tax exile status volunteered to go in goal - a position which has been thrown around like a hot potato at the moment (much in keeping with the handling of the incumbents). Unfortunately Mark our sports journalist student was not available through injury so therefore the match reports will continue to be much of the same, with the odd reference to late 70s footballers and long words that Grundy doesn't understand. The portents (there's a word for Grundy) were not good when the opposition kicked off and it quickly became clear that they had a couple of speedsters up front who would test our centre halves pace. Within the first 5 minutes it seemed it would be a long afternoon when the manager was forced into a challenge more in keeping with the Rugby World Cup to stop their centre forward bearing down on goal. Once the referee had worked out which team was playing in red and which one in burgundy, and hence stopped trying to book their no 10 for the challenge, he duly showed the yellow card to our manager for a challenge that was in keeping with the Willie Young professional foul on Paul Allen in the 1980 FA Cup (there's my 70's reference). However for some inexplicable reason our opponents rarely after this made use of their obvious advantage, and what became clear was their back two were even more pedestrian than ours. We took control of the game in the midfield where Hulmeians seemed unwilling or unable to get close to our players to close them down - this allowed Lannigan to stroll around for the rest of the afternoon picking off passes at will. Out first goal came after good work down our right resulted in Adams rifling a smart shot in. The second from Lannigan was a peach, again he was allowed space from 25 yards to pick his spot. Marcin got the third and also managed to miss a sitter from about a foot out. We created numerous other chances but were well worth a 3:0 half time lead. An initial flurry from Hulmeians at the beginning of the second half yielded a number of successive corners but no goal. Attacking wise we looked dangerous on the counter with Marcin and Rafal demonstrating a "Polish" understanding. Marcin got the fourth from a sol run, but Rafa and Dan should also have notched. The arrival of Ian Hesketh and Faz allowed the centre half pairing to be stood down having kept a clean sheet. In summary a reasonable performance, some good football on a hot afternoon but against very limited opposition. IW
Sat. 8th Oct 2011	V	O. Boltonians 'B' (h) 5 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : M. Mierzejewski 2, R. Czerczak, T. Lannigan, F. Farrington
		After the trials and tribulations of the first month of the season when at times it has been a struggle to get even 11 players on the pitch, this Saturday was unusual in that at one point in the morning I had 17 players. Resources were shared with the other teams and we ended up with a full squad of 14. The team which started showed 7 changes from the previous week and was like the league of nations with 3 Poles, 4 Lancastrians, one pretend Manc and 3 UCLAN students (who are a race all to themselves). We started with a new Polish goalkeeper which did wonders for communication. I had hoped for Jan (the “Clown”) Tomaszewski, who single handed prevented England from going to the 1974 World Cup, and earned his nickname from Brian Clough in the process, however on first appearances it looked like I had got the lead singer from the Scorpions (late 80’s mullet headed German soft rockers). To be fair what little Greg (good English/ Polish name that) had to do for the afternoon he dealt with well, and although in the height department he shares a similar stature to Hursty he doesn’t appear to share his liking for pies. In addition to our new keeper we also started with a completely new back four, however given the way they played for the afternoon you would never have known they had been thrown together that afternoon. Our two student full backs impressed and the two old men in the middle – Cheesy and Matt Ryan never let their forward line get going. What was most refreshing was that we looked and played like a team, with our two wide players stretching their back four and our midfield trio pulling the strings, unfortunately Lathom also pulled his back and therefore lasted his customary 50 minutes. One nil up at half time, through an early contender for goal of the season by Mierzjewski, a volley from 15 yards after a cross field ball from Lathom picked out Rafa who headed on to Marcin, we continued to press in the second half. Goals from Rafa, Lannigan, Marcin penalty (coming from a deliberate handball which resulted in a red card for them) and Farrington completed the formality of a regulation win. Marcin got two but probably should have scored more if only he had not been flagged offside at least 20 times – he had clearly decided to play on the shoulder of the centre – half who in his mind the was clearly some sort of Quasimodo freak or Chippy Scouser with 10 yard wide shoulders. Onwards and upwards. - IW
Sat. 15th Oct 2011 LAL Cup Rd 2	V	Rossendale Ams 'A' (h) 4 - 3 (ht.2-2) scorers : M. Mierzejewski 2, L. Prendeville, T. Lannigan
		Somewhat unusually for the LFA “A” cup we found ourselves playing the next round of this cup only 3 weeks after the last round, and not the normal 7 months! Our opponents being in Division Three and therefore three leagues above us our giant killing exploits of previous years were required. A strong side meant that there was no space on the bench for the manager – a positive sign. We welcomed back Mick Mountford from injury to the bench with the least convincing of all injuries – a painful in-growing toe nail, which also afflicted Gary Lineaker during his career (and there the similarities end). McBowerman took some time out from managing the fourths to be our sitting lump in the holding midfield role in the absence of Craig “Bad Back” Lathom. As our absent minded first team manager has reported sometimes remembering basic details such as goal scorers etc can be difficult and this game certainly falls into that category. With the exception of a half chance for their number 9 in the first minute (and he proved a handful all afternoon) we dominated the first 20 minutes taking a 2 goal lead. The first was a sweet move started by Mark White from right back and finished smartly by Lannigan, the second I have to admit I cannot recall the detail of only that Liam Prendeville scored. We should have been three up when Marcin found himself clear of their back four (possibly offside?) but panicked. We then seemed to collectively lose our sense of belief and contemplate the fact that we had just outplayed a team three leagues above us and going well. This was bad news as our opponents and their number nine found space behind our back four to claw back the deficit before half time. Our opponents also briefly had the ball and our keeper in the back of the goal in a manner reminiscent of Nat Lofthouse in 1958. The second half was shaded by our opponents however we always looked dangerous on the break through Marcin, who put us in the lead only for that bloody number 9 to equalise with about fifteen minutes to go. With a matter of a few minutes to go it looked like we could be heading for penalties only for Marcin to latch onto a speculative ball forward (again suspiciously offside) and slot home the fourth. We held out for the final 90 seconds to secure a thoroughly well earned victory and progression into the next round. - IW
Sat. 22nd Oct 2011	V	Tottington Utd Res (a) 0 - 1 (ht.0-1) scorers : -
		I was beginning to think that these reports were getting a little over long and unread but the slightest hint of encouragement from today’s subs has invigorated me to produce more of this rubbish. After last weeks giant killing exploits there was always a chance that we would suddenly think we had morphed into Colne Dynamoes and get ideas above our station, and I am afraid the first 20 minutes of this game fell into this category. Everything we have done well in the preceding weeks – defend well, attack with pace and precision and be tight in the middle went out of the window. We allowed our opponents to play in and around us and to attack us down our flanks. We were lucky not to be one down after this opening, a smart save from Meatloaf Greg keeping them at bay. However after this we came back into it and should have notched through a few chances that fell to us, one of which Dan Lewis should have scored from, and one where Marcin got the ball into the back of their net but was adjudged offside (now there’s a surprise) being the highlights. However as we got into the second half of the first half (eh?) I felt we dropped off again and they opened the scoring when their right winger hit a cross which caught the wind and deceived Greg by sneaking in at the near post. Some home truths were exchanged at half time, and the subs, two of whom had likened themselves to Gerrard and Lampard in the England set up (on the grounds of being experienced players kept out of the team by young pups – the two were McHugh and Latham and I will leave you to work out which was which) were readied. We got better in the second half creating a number of chances and scoring a contested disallowed goal (well at least Farrington contested it) and our opponents did not create a huge amount. The subs were introduced and our fluid tactics went from 4-5-1 to 3-6-1 to 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 without much effect, other than confusing our team and meaning that Mark “Student” White went from right back to centre midfield to left midfield in the space of 20 minutes and allowing McHugh to claim “Bingo” by having played in every outfield position for Broughton in his 30 year career. It was one of those afternoons when we could have played to Christmas and probably would not have scored. It was a disappointing result given our recent form, but it was refreshing to hear the silence after which meant everyone was hacked off by losing. Onwards and upwards a chance to redeem ourselves in 7 days and me to poke fun at Latham with an “a”. - IW
Sat. 5th Nov 2011	V	Thornleigh 'A' (h) 2 - 2 (ht.1-1) scorers : M. Mierzejewski 2
		To say we got out of jail with this result would be something of an understatement - it was a true Shawshank moment only without the fossil hammer and crappy drains. We welcomed Lowcock back from his travels to the US of A, and attempts by Barry and Hurst to tempt him to the dark side, aka Horwich. He informed us he had been playing on immaculately manicured pitches lovingly looked after by professional groundsmen, and even suggested he had been paid for the privilege (something I find hard to believe). He returned to Broughton and a pitch lovingly ignored by all but the moles, the grass now that high that Liam Prendeville our most diminutive player was started on the subs bench in the vain hope that by the time he got on the grass would have been trampled down sufficiently so we could see him. We welcomed, Liam, another of the UCLAN students to our ranks for the game - clearly Liam must have been a big character in Eastenders/ Neighbours/ Corrie twenty years ago. We started reasonably well, and were on top for first 20 minutes, without really getting into our stride. We created a few chances and Rafa looked busy down our right (I'd realised earlier that my quick speech and Northern accent made me unintelligible to Rafa, which might explain why he wasn't playing down the left!). McHugh, who was supporting the Movember cause and looking too much like Barry Chuckle for everybody's liking, took one in the meat and two veg which brought a tear to his eye and and a sympathetic one to everybody else, and took him effectively out of the game for 10 minutes. From the middle of the first half our opponents came more and more into the game and were unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions before they eventually took the lead. We managed to get a foothold back into the game just before half time when Marcin found himself unmarked in the penalty area and scored. The second half was dominated by our opponents - the tactic of playing five in midfield is supposed to be a defensive one however with comfort in numbers it appears no one is prepared to take responsibility for defending and we got murdered through the middle with their players finding space to run into without being tracked. Unsurprisingly they took the lead and looked good value for a win, however with minutes left and probably with only our third or fourth chance of the half Marcin saved our bacon by equalising. Meatloaf Greg made a couple of cracking saves and our back four defended well - they were getting plenty of practice - although we were hesitant and slow to react when defending set pieces (but that applies to all the team). A point definitely robbed rather than 2 points lost. On to next week when skipper Ryan gets a chance to break his jinx by captaining us to victory - or else the arm band is back with No 4! - IW.
Sat. 12th Nov 2011	V	O. Mancunians 'B' (a) 2 - 2 (ht.1-0) scorers : S. Rawsthorn, P. Monks
		If last week was a point won this was two points thrown away. If we had been 3 or 4 nil up at half time (instead of only 1) it would not have flattered us and we wouldn't have had the second half capitulation that we subsequently endured. A number of absences led to a shuffle of numbers and we welcomed Bell and Monks as a sub. Whilst Mancunians may represent one of our longest away trips to the depths of South Manchester it usually means playing on the University pitches and hence a decent surface. This meant that at last we got to play on grass under six inches in height, and for the first time in three weeks Mark White became visible. We took the lead after 10 minutes when Marcin played in Rawsthorn to slot home. We then had a period where we had five or six clear cut chances to go further. The best fell to a header from Rawsthorn, which had been put on plate for him by a great cross by Bell (Bell should possibly consider retiring now as in his 30 year playing career I am sure he has never put in a better cross and probably never will in future). Rafa hit the post and there were other near misses. Marcin was doing a good job holding the ball up and bringing other players into the game, our midfield looked solid and the defence, after a re-organisation forced on us by the early departure of Ian Hesketh (a man who eschews the benefits of bananas and a macro biotic diet for fags and curry), looked comfortable. Half time arrived and surely it was only a matter of how many - unfortunately not. Five minutes into the second half and they equalised when their forward scored from an offside position - unfortunately the ref chose to take a different view from our linesman. This shouldn't have mattered however as we had played well for the first half and we should simply have regained our composure - something we didn't do. We still created a number of chances the best falling to Rafa, Mark White and Luke Adams but we looked less comfortable and they were able to stretch our defence far better than they had done in the first half. Mancs threw on a couple of subs - one guy at seven feet being of Hagrid/ Hulk proportions and combined with their Japanese winger called "Hero" their forward line had something of a comic book feel to it (I'll avoid the obvious comparison to our team). With about 15 minutes to go they surprisingly took the lead, when a counter attack from our corner saw one of their forwards slot confidently past Greg. It looked curtains for us but we were not yet beat. A direct free kick was won on the edge of the area, and after a check with the referee the quick witted Monks (two words you never thought you would see in the same sentence as Monks) took the kick and scored whilst their goalkeeper was still trying to arrange his wall. For the second week running we had a rescued a draw at the death. - IW
Sat. 19th Nov 2011	V	Bolton Wyresdale 'A' (h) 3 - 1 (ht.2-0) scorers : R. Czerczak, S. Rawsthorn, F. Farrington
		Why is it that our best performances this season have been reserved for the stronger teams we have played? This team were second in the league, a somewhat unusual position for Wyresdale who have not traditionally been one of the stronger teams in our league. Our numbers were depleted by the fact that our quartet of students were somewhat surprisingly working. This meant we had a bare eleven with the manager in reserve to come on and turn the game. We started the game well and within 10 minutes were one nil up when Lannigan claimed as assist by falling over and managing at the same time to steer the ball into Rafa’s path who neatly slotted home. We looked organised in defence with two banks of four when they had the ball. We very quickly worked out that Wyresdale’s main tactic was to push their two, nippy wide man up when they had the ball and look for balls round the back of our defence. It never really worked for them and both fullbacks – Lowcock and Barry Chuckle (sorry McHugh) played very well and Cheesy and Ryan at centre half were immovable objects. In the middle we bossed the midfield with all four – Farrington, Alistair, Lannigan and (dare I say it) Rawsthorn doing well. Our second came when Rawsthorn struck a shot from the edge of the penalty area. Half time came and we were a well deserved two goals up. The second half started in a similar manner with Rafa and Marcin chasing many lost causes and putting their back four under pressure. After about two or three chances inside the six yard box for Farrington he eventually managed to poke one in from 2 feet and put us three nil up. It should have been game over from this point. However our opponents proved competitive and as we got deeper they got more of the ball and eventually managed to pull one back with about 15 minutes left. At this point panic began to set in and we had to endure a difficult last ten minutes – however with the exception of a couple of decent saves Greg was relatively quiet. There was still time for the manager to come on for the last 7 minutes and get booked – his only significant contribution. At last Ryan, at the fourth time of asking, had won a league game as skipper. - IW
Sat. 14th Jan 2012	V	Tottington Utd Res (h) 1 - 2 (ht.1-0) scorers : M. Mierzejewski
		This game summed up our season to date in one word – inconsistent. First game for two months and it was against our bogey team of the last two seasons. Even though we are in the middle of January and Easter eggs have been on sale for weeks our student contingent had not made it back from their Christmas break. This combined with a couple of other absences through illness, injury and curry would have meant that without the fourth’s postponement we would have struggled. However we welcomed McBowerman and Braithwaite to our numbers from the Fourths. The pitch, as expected, given the recent weather gave the impression of being a football pitch but played like a ploughed field. Our first half performance was good, even if at times not particularly pleasing on the eye. We had hit the post within the first minute through Mierzejewski, created other chances and eventually took the lead after about 20 minutes when Mierzejwski beat the offside trap (not something you hear too often) and finished well. Our back four and holding midfield defended well and with the exception of one corner cleared off the line by Adams. Our keeper Greg, had little to do. At half time we turned round one nil up and with the better half of the pitch to defend we should have closed the game out – unfortunately we didn’t. For the first twenty minutes of the second half we simply seemed incapable of holding onto possession and began defending deeper and deeper – it was inevitable that an equaliser would come, which it duly did. However this did not act as a wake up call and our opponents domination of possession continued – some shuffling of personnel having no effect. When our opponents took the lead it was no more than they deserved. At last we started to play again and from our first piece of football of the second half we won a penalty. Mierzejewski proved that if its good enough for Fat Frank, Shrek and Simon it was good enough for him and duly missed the penalty by smashing it against the bar. We created other chances which could have produced an equaliser but didn’t and even the late introduction of Bell to disturb the karma didn’t work. At least we don’t have to play this lot again this season. - IW
Sat. 11th Feb 2012	V	Oldham Hulmeians 'A' (h) 3 - 3 (ht.1-1) scorers : T. Lannigan, M. Bowerman, Tom
		With third team manager, Ian W, away watching a match over-shadowed by two men not shaking hands, fourth team manager, Mick B, stepped in to help. Match preparation was hampered by two players pulling out in the morning, including the regular goalkeeper, two other players breaking down on the way to the match and four footballs that didn’t seem to have survived the winter. We started the match very strongly and should have been ahead after a minute. Bowerman played in Czerczak and he beat the keeper before hammering the ball against our left-midfielder Prendeville who was standing on the line. We had another chance to go ahead a minute after that with Rawsthorn going close. Oldham seemed to wake up a bit after that and started to put us under some pressure. They had a few good chances, including two goals disallowed, before they eventually took the lead after a cross floated in. We got back onto level terms after Ryan’s effort from a corner came back off the post and Lannigan reacted quickest to score from the rebound. Oldham finished the half as the stronger team and were perhaps a bit unlucky not to score at least one other chance. We started the second half like we did the first: creating and missing some good chances; Bowerman shot just wide from the edge of the area; a long range shot was well saved and Rawsthorn missed the rebound when it looked easier to score; and Czerczak missed a good chance when he tried some kind of reverse scissor kick at the back-post when he had enough time to control it, light a cigar and pick his spot. As in the first half, Oldham punished our missed chances and went ahead again after a shot from the edge of the area look a wicked deflection and went in. We continued to create chances and had a goal of our own disallowed after Bowerman found the top corner only to find the referee had blown for a foul on Czerczak. The resulting free-kick was taken by Whitely and he forced the ‘keeper into a good save. We eventually equalised after a corner was cleared as far as Bowerman, who fired into the top corner from just outside the area for a contender for goal of the season. With about eight minutes to go, we took the lead when substitute, Tom, volleyed home from a corner. Oldham sent everything forward and we tried to waste time in the corner in the final minutes of the game. Unfortunately, we lost the ball and then gave away a daft free-kick in our half. They sent everyone forward for the free-kick with the aim of “putting it on top of the ‘keeper”. The cross came in, missed everyone and dropped in the net at the back post. That was pretty much the last kick of the game. It always annoying to concede late goal like we did but we were ultimately punished for not taking the numerous clear cut chances that we created. There is a good chance to put things right next week…away against top of the league. - MB
Sat. 25th Feb 2012	V	Radcliffe Town 'B' (a) 2 - 0 (ht.0-0) scorers : R. Czerczak, I. Winn
		Is social media a force for good or not? No doubt a question that has been much addressed in many Mickey mouse degree dissertations the length and breadth of the country. Why pose this question in a match report? Well on Friday evening we had 14 players in spite of Marcin having suffered a "Neil Webb" career threatening Achilles injury, the student contingent yet again demonstrating an appetite for paid work that I am sure doesn't extend into their academic studies and Ali using the cover of his kids to justify going to watch the bunch of untalented wasters that is the X Factor live. On saturday morning the usual text arrived from one of the players (mentioning no names Dan Cook) explaining how following an unfortunate food poising incident which had rendered him nauseous all evening, and resulting in a lack of sleep, he would not be able to play. Clearly however he had experienced some form of Lazarus like recovery as at about 4am on Saturday morning he was able to post on Facebook from somewhere in the south of the region his disappointment that he was at a "grab a granny" rave rather than the hip and trendy Ibizan rave he had been expecting. Given that Finney and Nathan were also playing for us then the omens were not good that these two would not also fall victim to "food poisoning"! The lesson from all this of course is if you are going to bother to tell a little white lie don't also use facebook. We therefore travelled with 12 - welcoming John Major as our target man and Chris Fillingham back from a 5 month injury layoff (although with the way the weather has been he's only missed a couple of games). We were playing the bottom of the league side and started well creating a number of chances all of which we managed to balls up. Rafa, in particular was giving a good impression of Fernando Torres with his knack of missing even the simplest of chances. However he was not alone - Major, Lanny, Lanny's mate Tom and Faz all missed relatively easy chances. In spite of our opponents lowly league position they did start to come into the game and only a good save from Huddlestone stopped them having an unlikely lead at the break. Our second half performance if anything deteriorated although we never looked in real danger of conceding a goal. With 25 minutes to go the manger took off Major to replace him with himself. To be fair to John this was only to avoid two players being on the pitch with a combined age of 90, and the centre half who had been marking John was subsequently so fatigued by running round John that he went down with cramp. With 15 minutes left we took the lead through one of the more bizarre goals ever scored - their keeper in two minds whether the referee had given a goal kick or free kick for offside simply tapped the ball to the edge of the area where Rafa, playing to the whistle, was able to knock it into an empty goal (all be it off the post so not fully breaking the comparison with Torres). In the immediate aftermath of this the referee confirmed the ball was in play and the goal stood, and then after a disagreement with their No 10 accepted his invitation to send him off. In spite of playing the last 15 minutes against 10 men we started to play deeper - possibly a sign that it had been mid November since we had last won. With the final move of the game we doubled our advantage through a goal from the manager, variously described as "a peach" by all who witnessed it. Given that it is likely to be the last competitive goal scored by him then it's worth pointing out that he cut inside on the edge of the area and curled the ball into the top left hand corner out of reach of the despairing dive of the goalkeeper in a style reminiscent of Currie, Hoddle, Worthington et al. In summing up a Winns a Winn I suppose (see wot i did there?). - IW
Sat. 3rd Mar 2012	V	Tyldesley United Res (a) 2 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : R. Czerczak, Parry
		Another Saturday and another struggle to get a team of 11 out. Absent, injured or AWOL were a team of students, Lowcock and his big toe, Alistair (suggestion he might have been at a JLS concert) plus Cooky and his posse with a collection of injuries found in the more obscure sections of the Readers Digest Guide to Men's Health. As a consequence whilst we travelled with 12 plus manager, fresh from his goal of the season last week, we had three centre halves, two midfielders and 6 attackers. A collection of players better suited to a game of top trumps than forming an effective formation, however at least we had a proper goalkeeper - welcoming back Greg from his Scorpions reunion gig behind the former iron curtain. We set up 3-5-2 in a formation reminiscent of Ajax in their mid 70's pomp rather than the Procter & Gamble kitchen cleaner. It has to be said there was a certain amount of doubt from the team on the formation and the manager's request for total football. This got worse when we walked onto the pitch and realised we would be playing on the largest pitch we have seen this season and one with a slope to match the famous slope at Yeovil Town - before they got in the league and went all professional. The manager never doubted his tactics, plus in Iron Lady fashion there was no alternative. We dominated from first to last. The size of the pitch only ever caused us a brief problem in the middle of the first half, when due to playing up hill we started to defend deeper and allow space to open up between our defence and midfield. If anything the size of the pitch allowed us at times to play something resembling football. Parry starting at centre forward for us did well, holding the ball up well and proving dangerous with his head, going close early on with two good headers from corners. We eventually took the lead midway through first half when Rafa latched onto a through ball and calmly slotted past their keeper. At half time we were one nil up but should have been more. Second half we continued to create chances - Parry getting the second with a flicked header which looped over their keeper. There were only a few times our back line look threatened but these were usually dealt with comfortably by our back three - or if that failed a blatant body check from Cheesy. It was a good all round team performance with Adams playing well on the right hand side, Parry leading the line well and Rawsthorn's transformation from surly, reluctant left side of midfield in first half to nippy, interested second striker in the second half. Final hope is that next week we can get a team out without exceeding my monthly texting and data allowance. - IW
Sat. 10th Mar 2012	V	O. Boltonians 'B' (a) 1 - 1 (ht.0-0) scorers : S. Rawsthorn
		Numerically our best week yet. A squad of 14 travelled to the game which did not include the manager (sometime scorer of stunning goals and perennial sub) and the two Tom's fan club (I've missed the opportunity there for a cheap pun about sat-navs). A change of venue from Bolts usual ground (supposedly the oldest ground to continuously host football in the world and rumour has it Doug played there in its early years) to the palatial setting of Bolton School and a pitch fit for public school kids. As usual we had our usual wait for our laid back, sartorially challenged, transfer pricing tax accountant, who in spite of being closest managed to arrive barely 15 minutes before kick off. We had our strongest side of the season out with Lanny starting as a somewhat surprising centre forward and Lowcock moved into midfield on the basis that he had brought along a full back who could defend and kick the ball straight - two attributes which Lowcock finds sometimes elusive. Playing top of the league (although a team we beat 5 nil earlier in the season) we needed to start well - which we did. First half we were playing into a strong wind, which assisted us in playing the ball into our forwards. From the start we created chances through Lowcock, Lannigan, Rawsthorn and Fillingham. However after only 15 minutes we had to reorganise when our dedicated follower of fashion was withdrawn with a tight hamstring. We reorganised with Lannigan dropping back to midfield and Rafa coming on as centre forward. We continued to create chances and with Ali dominant in midfield and the back four rarely troubled we turned around at half time at nil nil fully expecting to secure a win in the second half. The second half continued in the same vein as the first half with Rawsthorn and Rafa unable to convert the many chances they had through a combination of good goalkeeping and perhaps just a little lack of composure and two left feet (or in the case of Rawsthorn two right feet). Against the run of play our opponents took the lead from a corner, a scrambled effort being converted when it had looked like we had cleared one off the line. There followed a few substitutions by both sides, the Old Bolts manager trying to show off by demonstrating as many tactical formations as possible in a fifteen minute period. We finally broke our duck when Rawsthorn converted well to equalise with about 10 minutes to go. There was still chances for us to go on and win it, and lose it, and with the last action of the game Cheesy, somewhat ironically given his advanced years, called the referee an old c### (chap?) and was promptly sent off. - IW
Sat. 17th Mar 2012	V	Mostonians 'A' (h) 2 - 0 (ht.2-0) scorers : R. Czerczak, F. Farrington
		After a Friday evening and Saturday morning where 4 players withdrew at late notice it was a relief to have 12 plus the manager to take on our opponents. It should be noted that in order to get 12 players out for the match over 25 players were texted regarding their availability - Fergie doesn't have these problems. In getting enough bodies together positions had been overlooked in favour of the simple expediency of being fit, having two legs and a pair of boots. In this important facet our resident tax expert, clearly more focused on Osborne's upcoming budget and working out ways for large companies to dodge tax, didn't even have a pair of boots - and so a spare pair (somewhat ironically donated by our absent tax exile Shirley) were provided. We reverted to 3-5-2 given our absence of full backs, and a formation that had served us well against Tyldesley. Some goal post erection problems (not a euphemism for erectile dysfunction) meant that the manager was unable to deliver his usual pre match team talk and it showed as we were simply the best team for the first half. Simon and Rafa terrified the life out of a very statuesque Moston defence and it was just a shame that their approach play was not matched by a clinical approach to taking chances. Ali and Scouse pulled the strings in midfield managing, most of the time, to play football on a surface which could be politely described as less than true. Valdi, another member of our Polish contingent, showed good work rate on the left side of midfield. The back three also looked relatively comfortable. We took the lead after 10 minutes when their goalie spilled a low ball into the six yard box and Faz poached one in from 10 cm, obviously helped by his on loan, poncey white boots (a la Alan Ball). We scored a second from Rafa when he shot in from a narrow angle and at least three more at halftime would not have flattered us. The half time team talk from the manager clearly worked, for our opponents, as they came more into the game and began to dominate possession. However they never really looked like scoring and even when they did they were beaten by the pitch. With 20 minutes to go we reverted to 4-5-1 just so the manager could show off his tactical acumen - and from this point Rafa took them on on his own up front and almost scored a couple of times. With 10 minutes to go the Moston, s@@@ for brains, sub committed his second awful challenge in as many minutes. As Dill got up, extending to his full 6 feet plus frame to point out to the No 14 the error of his ways there was a pitch invasion by the extras from Shameless and a coupe of Jeremy Kyle Show guests (the Moston travelling support who had been drinking alco pops all afternoon). Punches were thrown, luckily for the brains trust from Moston, none of them by Dill. Once sanity was regained the missing link aka Moston's no 14 and Dill were given their marching orders. The remaining 10 minutes passed with little incident. So once again we have beaten a team at the top of the league - if only we could be as consistent against teams below us. Two weeks time will be interesting when we play the reverse fixture with Moston. - IW
Sat. 24th Mar 2012	V	Radcliffe Town 'B' (h) 4 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : S. Rawsthorn 3, S. Thompson
		Another Saturday another round of fun and games to get four teams out. As a result of a " no show" by Keiran in the firsts - how hard can it be to show a basic level of manners and courtesy and text in advance and apologise for being a dick - we lost Rafa to the firsts at 1.35pm. This left us with 12 plus the manager to take on our league's bottom side - surely more than enough. A last minute change of strip was required due to a colour clash and we found ourselves in the Newcastle United changed tops circa 1995 when Phillipe Albert was in his pomp and Kev was just "loving it". There were advantages and disadvantages to this, the tops are short sleeved so were clearly well suited to the Mediterranean weather we were experiencing. However with only 10 shirts the subs were to be pitied when they came on as this involved having to wear someone else's sweat soaked shirt. The game was a formality and at no time did our opponents ever look like getting anything out of the game, however it wasn't until midway through the second half that we had a decent lead which put to bed any hopes of any late rally by Radcliffe. Before acknowledging the goal scorers it is worth cataloguing the string of squandered chances from Matt Ryan missing with his head, Sam Thompson missing on a couple of occasions when it was easier to score through to Kez (welcomed back from the dark side aka. Horwich ). Lanny also missed a handful, the worst of which was from 6 inches. Lanny did technically have the excuse of new high tech Nike boots - although all the R & D millions in the world cannot compensate for the dummy inside them. As for the goals, the first was scored after 30 minutes when Rawsthorn finished calmly with a chip after a great through ball from Pye. The second came after 50 minutes when Thompson shinned in a cross which deceived everyone including their keeper. Rawsthorn scored the third and fourth goals to complete a hat trick. However because it's Simon it's not a proper hat-trick, which is left foot, right foot and head (when will Simon ever score with his head? - or even use it all), and has therefore been re-categorised as a brace plus one. By the end of the game Radcliffe were down to 9 fit men - which was the managers cue to introduce himself. There was finally just time for Cheesy to wake up and make a "gingerist" remark at the strawberry blonde playing on the wing for our opponents who was called Carrot by his own team mates, presumably in a reference to his likening for orange root vegetables. - IW
Thu. 29th Mar 2012	V	O. Blackburnians 'B' (a) 3 - 1 (ht.2-0) scorers : R. Czerczak 3
		Could it be a rare match where everyone who was supposed to turn up did? Almost - we would have had a 100% turn out if Faz hadn't come off worse in the domestic battle for supremacy over the car, and therefore found himself short of a set of wheels to get from Manchester to Blackburn. This was our first visit to Blacks since our narrow loss on penalties in last seasons A team cup final, and an opportunity for Grundy to redeem himself and the manager. The managers team talk focused on getting into the game quickly and striking early to get an advantage. The plan was executed to perfection - what were the chances of that! We started well and our forward line of Parry, Rafa and Rawsthorn ran their back four ragged with some neat interplay. Our first goal came when Rafa volleyed in from 15 yards - a cracking finish. Rafa also got our second after some good interplay. We were 2 nil up with fifteen minutes gone - plan achieved. Shortly after Parry was upended in the box and we were awarded a penalty and a chance to kill the game off. Simon "I have never missed a penalty" Rawsthorn stepped up and duly had his penalty saved - and is probably still proffering excuses as to why it didn't go in. We continued to dominate the first half against what wasn't the worst Blacks team we have ever played. This was down to the discipline of the midfield and back four in defending with a modicum of intelligence. Fillingham even earned a rare yellow card - apparently his first ever so preventing him from emulating Gary Lineker's achievement of going un-booked through his playing career (not ditching his wife of 20 years and trading her in for a younger model). The second half came and we couldn't quite keep up the intensity of the first half and the temptation to hump it down the slope for the front three proved too tempting. However we extended our lead, and Rafa secured his hat-trick when he chased another lost clause and the ball rebounded off him into the goal. As the light started to go, clearly causing our senior citizen Cheesy at centre half problems in seeing the ball, Blacks came more into it and scored with about 15 minutes to go. There was still just time for Grundy to prevent us having a fraught final five minutes when he pulled off a great save to prevent them getting to 3 2. The run continues lets just hope we can keep it going. - IW
Sat. 31st Mar 2012	V	Mostonians 'A' (a) 3 - 1 (ht.2-0) scorers : S. Rawsthorn 2, I. Parry
		Just as the Manager mentions in previous match report about having a full complement minus Faz; the manager is away doing his bit for the amateur runners and 4 players fail to turn leaving Rawsthorn and Ryan to pinch a last minute call up from the 4ths just to make 11. When we thought it couldn't get worse we then got lost and so turned up to kick off 20 minutes late with no warm up against a team whom two weeks ago turned up at King George V to try and knock 7 bells out of our biggest player Dill. What was to come next, well as two weeks ago we pretty much dominated and within 2mins we took the lead when Parry turned on the edge of the box to drill a low left shot home and stun their supposable intimidating crowd to silence. The early goal set the pattern of play for most of the game and even though the pitch was pretty solid and bouncy we tried to play a bit of football and continued to listen to verbal diarrhoea from most of their team as they constantly argued. Our dominance told, and comfortable in defence Rawsthorn and Parry in attack linked well as in recent weeks to score a 2nd with Rawsthorn latching onto one of many flicks from Parry to poke home ahead of an advancing keeper. The 2nd half was pretty much the same pattern and Parry had further chances to increase the lead, and Ryan missing now his compulsory header from a corner, before Rawsthorn added his 2nd with an instinctive right foot shot from 18yrds from another Parry flick on to increase the lead and surely seal the points. Rawsthorn should have secured a 2nd hat-trick of the week only for bar to intervene and keeper make a fantastic block late on. 15mins to go saw Mostonians got a consolation from a corner that caused problems for the first time in the game, but after our defence sank a little deeper Cheesy, Ryan, the usual gobby Lowcock and quiet as a mouse Ozzy, aided by very good performances in front of them by 4th teamer Dan Harle and the battling Ali and Jim with the returning Kez, meant that Greg again had a relatively quiet game and when needed kept up his excellent performances this season. We move on to another night game and hopefully our promotion tilt can continue. - SR
Thu. 5th Apr 2012	V	O. Blackburnians 'B' (h) 2 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : S. Rawsthorn, I. Parry
		The games are coming thick and fast at the moment so its a good job we have access to select from a large pool of the able bodied from North Preston, and Cheesy. The first team manager commented he had used 40 or so players this year. We can top that given we have so far used 49 different players, although credit to Doug Low and Dan Cook, who until his recent dismissal, have been ever presents. After last week usual service is resumed on the match report with the normal crap, pointless analogies and tangential content - however at least it wont be "forward" centric. We welcomed Lowcock Jnr as our 49th team mate and thankfully he had not inherited his skills from Lowcock "trap it as far as I can kick it" Snr. The pitch was a hard,turner, which was a shame given that we were trying to play football on it and not bowl out Sri Lanka in the second test. The old cliches are the best and it was the same for both teams and did bring everyone down to the same level as Lowcock Snr. The first team manager has made reference to the lack of "match detail" in these reports - well in the case of this game you should be grateful for small mercies, the beautiful game it was not. We had the best of the first half of the game, in which most of our team never appeared to break sweat. Rawsthorn put us ahead with a well taken goal and we had other chances to extend our lead which were squandered. The worst one coming from Ryan, who demonstrated why he spends most of his time in our half, when he smashed a shot from close range straight against the post. Throughout the game we rarely looked in danger at the back, although Blacks did have a couple of half decent shouts for penalties. Ref Gerald, demonstrating his usual laissez faire attitude to physical contact, declined the appeals. One appeal against Cheesy probably had some merit, although Ref Gerald clearly had some empathy with a fellow octogenarian and did not give it. Gerald also earned further brownie points when he booked Rawsthorn, who with his usual perspective had decided a wrongly awarded throw-in was on the same scale of injustice as that meted out to the Birmingham 6. We extended our lead in the second half when Parry swept in a cross, however from that point on both sides seemed to accept defeat in trying to play any football on the pitch. Although at one point we seemed to decide that a cunning strategy would be to play keepy uppy to take the pitch out of the equation - forgetting that we had been brought up in Preston not Copacabana. With 10 minutes to go Grundy, for the second week, pulled off a smart save from an Old Blacks forward and so prevented a nervous end to the game. Momentum maintained and a chance next week to find our 50th player of the season. - IW
Sat.14th Apr 2012	V	O. Mancunians 'B' (h) 1 - 0 (ht.0-0) scorers : K. Backside
		Some TLC lavished on the pitch by Cheesy, who nearly stranded the roller, and Doug meant that the pitch was a completely different proposition to our last match played on it. If there were any complaints the rolled lines on the pitch were not exactly straight and would have failed a sobriety test. Our opponents clearly expecting traffic problems must have left Manchester around Good Friday as they were waiting patiently for us to open up at 1.30 pm, or alternatively being proper Mancs did not in anyway want to be doing with the match taking place at Wembley between one average side and one even more average side managed by a man who makes the Grim Reaper look cheerful. The game started with us playing a 4-3-3 formation, and one of their rather more numerically challenged players suggested they were getting outnumbered in midfield. The first 45 minutes were comfortable, we were never troubled at the back but going forward we alternated between looking quite good and looking quite poor. There were too many flicks and first time balls being played - if our players were good enough to do this then they would be getting paid to play. Likewise at times our forwards were making the same runs and occupying the same space. We did create some chances and had a goal rightly ruled out for offside but the lack of a goal during the first half caused frustration and our lack of patience began to surface in dissent amongst the ranks. Half time brought a "metaphorical" rattle out of the pram moment and we started the second half 4-4-2 with Stewart replacing Rawsthorn. Again in the second half we had moments creating some good chances but also having a close couple of calls in our own penalty area. Ali who had fought a running battle with his counterpart in the number 7 shirt found himself in the book when he kicked him one too many times. Finally with about 15 minutes to go, after a goal line melee from a corner the ball was eventually forced over the line when one of their players hit an attempted clearance against his own keepers backside and it went in. We still had time for Greg to rescue his and our bacon when we made a smart save after first spilling a shot. It wasn't pretty but at least it was a win. The match was like this match report lacking a little inspiration. - IW
Mon. 16th Apr 2012	V	Thornleigh 'A' (a) 0 - 1 (ht.0-0) scorers :
		Three pull outs on the day - one due to injury, one to illness and one to a no show - is pretty much par for the course. However one of the absentees was our goalkeeper who chose not to turn up which meant that we had to cajole Ali into rescuing his gloves and a rather makeshift goalies jersey to go in goal. Thornleigh's pitch was what we have come to expect at this time of year - barren, bumpy and baked, and in spite of Latham playing on it a couple of years ago still with its infamous slope. Faz surprised everyone by being the first one there but then blotted his copybook by first locking himself in the bog and then only starting to play at minute 50. We found ourselves with a fan base, as Old Bolts had turned up to cheer us on to a result which would allow them to claim the league. The game itself was not a classic. The referee set the tone in the first 10 minutes with his attitude to physical contact - his attitude was a hark back to the decade of sideburns, flares and dirty Leeds. Given that he applied this consistently across both teams it soon became clear that this would be a physical battle and the referee was not going to change his mind - irrespective of how much we harangued him. It took us a while to adapt to this physical battle and playing with two quickish, willo the wisp players up front against two barn doors meant that Simon and Rafa would be kicked from pillar to post. We had a few moments in the first half but I can't recall their keeper making a meaningful save. Likewise whilst Thornleigh had the bulk of possession they did not bring a save out of Ali, and whilst dangerous from set pieces the only time they threatened was when Cheesy, harking back to his adolescence in the seventies, gave a good impression of a Harlem Globetrotter which was lucky not to result in a penalty. The second half continued in much the same way - the back four played well and Chris Pye imposed himself in the midfield battle while Simon and Rafa looked for what scraps they could find. Thornleigh took the lead from a corner, a good run across our defender and a smart header which we could do nothing about. We forced a couple of saves from their goalkeeper - one long range back pass from Cheesy, a rocket from Pye and a scuffed shot from Rawsthorn. Ali pulled off his only real save of the game 15 minutes from the end which kept us in it. A couple of changes were made to try and rescue something to little avail, and it was a bit sad to see Thornleigh resort to running down the clock by keeping the ball in the corner. In the end in spite of a performance full of effort and endeavour we could not manage to get back in it. Roll on the cup. - IW
Sat. 21st Apr 2012	V	Lymm 'A' (h) 4 - 1 (ht.1-1) scorers : S. Rawsthron, R. Czerczak, Valdi, C. Pye
		With the results of last week meaning that the best we could achieve was third all we had to play for was pride, to maintain some momentum in the run up to our semi final and "rewanz" (Polish for revenge apparently and somewhat sinister when pronounce by Rafa). In spite of having only three sides to field we found ourselves with only one sub - the manager who was going to come off the bench and change the game. An absence of full backs meant that McHugh joined Broughton's very own Statler and Waldorf (for those who can't be bothered googling it the two old men in the Muppets) to form a back three. The first half was a patchy affair, with only a few exceptions we were never unduly troubled at the back. However in trying to find our two "nippy" forwards we surrendered possession too easily. We had what appeared from the sideline a very good shout for a penalty when Rawsthorn (theatrics aside) appeared to be shoved in the back as he ran into the penalty area. We took the lead when Pye put through Rawsthorn, who calmly slotted it under the keeper. However the lead was short lived when Greg could only palm a shot aside into the path of a Lymm player who fired in. We started the second half in better form and retook the lead when Rafa finished smartly (given that the writer of this report was at the time retrieving one of the balls from the beck thats the extent of a description you get). There then followed 15 minutes of madness from their No 8. Lymm/Warrington being in between Manchester and Liverpool meant that the "loon" at No 8 had clearly inherited the worse traits of both cities. When the usually mild mannered Valdi kicked him after being upended it was clear the guy was a "tool". There followed a further 10 minutes when he kicked anything that moved and somethings that did not and culminated in him taking Rawsthorn out of the game with a truly horrendous challenge. Whilst one not to decry referees the No 8's 15 minutes of madness should never have been allowed to happen, however it was understandable when you have a young lad trying to referee a grown idiot. To be fair to Lymm most of the rest of their players were equally embarrassed by his performance (the No 8's not the referee). Rawsthorn was forced to withdraw with the manager coming on to turn the game in an unfamiliar forward role. With 25 minutes to go the relative age of the Lymm team began to tell and we were able to get far more possession of the ball with Valdi, Pye, Scouse and Farrington all using the ball intelligently. Our third goal came from Valdi with a smart strike with his left foot and a fourth came form a twenty yard strike from Pye. In between there was still time for Ryan to make his now customary miss of an easy chance from a set piece - yet again demonstrating that he is about as much use as one legged man in an arse kicking competition in the oppositions penalty area. Good result, reasonable performance - IW
Sat. 28th Apr 2012	V	Tyldesley Utd Res (h) 5 - 2 (ht.3-0) scorers : R. Czerczak 3, A. Mews 2
		It's that point of the season when with little in the way to play for in the league motivation to write a match report is dwindling faster than Rovers faint chances of premiership survival - even the fun of taking the mick out of Lowcock is wearing thin. A team effort was required (see linked photo) to clear the standing water around the corner flag, although Mews wins the King Canute award for futility as he can be clearly seen scooping off the water with a pint measuring jug or is an egg cup (runner up the absent Rawsthorn for his attempts to win friends and influence people with leagues referees). Farrington, unusually for him early, participated in this particular form of team bonding, but then missed the first five minutes of the game as he was sat on the bog ( the toilet not the puddle in the corner flag). Our opponents drew straws to see who would go in goal for them, a strange choice given that their 22 stone centre forward would surely have been the best bet. He actually made Latham look small (not that he was playing for us today but hell it's the end of the season and everyone is fair game). Rafa, scored a first half hatrick, apparently a proper one - header, left foot and right foot. The third goal being created by Lowcock, who somehow found himself in the left hand side of the penalty area without a nose bleed. Second half brought two further goals for us through Mews, one clipped over his shoulder after he had missed a sitter. Our opponents got two back, one from the oldest player on the pitch (someone who looked like he should have come on his free bus pass) and one when the defence parted to allow their no 4 to run though unheeded and slot past Greg. Another afternoon when Ryan yet again demonstrated that goal scoring is as foreign a skill to him as English is to Valdi. The win however confirmed third place in the league for us.
Wed. 2nd May 2012 LAL Cup SF	V	O. Blackburnians 'A' (a) 2 - 1 (ht.1-1) scorers : C. Pye 2
		With Manager Winn on away day, it was left with Rawsthorn and Ryan to take control of the squad for this semi final away from home. A full squad of 15 became 14 when Faz failed to show due to motorway issues. Anyway we started with 4-3-3 and with our mostly younger counterparts having plenty of the ball they never really threatened and we created a few half chances that we failed to trouble the keeper with. Parry made an early exit with the flair up of a knee injury. We took the lead around the mid-point of the first half when Rafa turned the last man and was upended for a stonewall penalty that Pye converted. But the lead lasted only 3 minutes when a ball into the box saw their man have a free run and a flick header guided into the far post. Although Blacks had plenty of the ball we created chances and moments before half time a great double save by their keeper after a shot by Scouse followed up quickly by Rawsthorn kept the scores at 1-1 half time. Playing downhill second half we started with same formation and we were now gaining a bit more of the ball and controlling position a little, Greg continued to have little to do really and when he did he did it with his usual ease. Changing to 4-4-2, Rafa made way for Valdi and we now looked more fluent and began to get in behind their full backs more, with Pye and Rawsthorn linking up. In the middle of the park Ali was winning much in the air and defensively we continued to look sound. Penalties were looming when Pye received the ball and let fly from 20 yards out to find the top right corner with keeper having no chance. Cheesy then tweaked a hamstring while sneezing and so Luke entered the fray. We shored up for the final 10mins 4-5-1 and comfortably held out to make it a repeat of last years final against Old Boltonians 'A' - all welcome to come and support.
Sat. 5th May 2012	V	Bolton Wyresdale 'A' (a) 0 - 3 (ht.0-0) scorers : -
		The afternoon after the night before. The race night and presentation had clearly taken its toll on half the team and manager. The worst affected appeared to Mews who had either gone all show biz or was wearing sunglasses to hide the mother of all hangovers. Not too much to say really we were second best all afternoon at best. Nil nil at half time, three nil at full time. Two howlers giving them two of their three goals - however nothing more than they deserved. Poor end to a hit and miss league season, which but for a couple of wins against sides we should be beating could have resulted in us pushing for promotion until the end. Home to bed and sleep off the jaeger bombs before final match of the season - repeat of last years A team final against Old Bolts. IW
Wed. 9th May 2012 Cup Final	V	O. Boltonians 'A' (ht.2-3) 2 - 3 VENUE: Bolton Wyresdale FC scorers: T. Lannigan 2
		The final Broughton Amateurs game under the auspices of the Lancashire Amateur League, and true to form we were required to travel midweek to a far flung outpost of Bolton/ Bury whilst our opponents had the moderately easy task of simply travelling down the road. It could be likened to the upcoming Champions League Final only without the racism, diving, Germans and thankfully that arse Terry. The final was a repeat of last years 3rd XI final when we lost out on penalties to the same team - Grundy was on the bench primed to come on, could it be a case of deja vu? It wouldn't be a Broughton fixture without a few last minute availability problems - Cheesy's groin, Valdi pulling out at 10.30pm Tuesday evening, Scouse at 5.20am Wednesday morning and Parry not making it onto the team bus (sorry Matt's car) at 5pm Wednesday. McBowerman Snr was drafted in at the last minute to provide assistance and we started with a team plus four subs, who in an unusual twist were all playing under their own names. That meant no place in the final line up for Low and Cook, two ever-presents throughout the season. Farrington provided the usual entertainment in his attempts to both find and get to the pitch. In an attempt to stifle our opponents, who were three divisions above us, we reverted to 4-5-1 with Pye as the target man and Rafa in an unaccustomed right midfield berth. For the first 25 minutes it worked after a fashion. Although clearly Rafa was confused as to who and what he should be marking at any particular point - not sure whether Marcin shouting in Polish from the sidelines helped or hindered. We looked threatening from set pieces and long throws and Bolts defence looked far from secure - the old man at centre half looked older than Cheesy and the manager combined. However the danger from set pieces did abate when Ryan made his way into the area - about as much use as a chocolate fireguard and about as prolific. We took the lead when from a corner, McBowerman brought a smart save from the keeper which only fell to Lannigan to lash in. At this point Pye looked dangerous whenever he got the ball and he was doing a good job of holding the ball up and bringing our midfield into play, at one point he even tried an audacious Suarez/ Beckham like lob which didn't quite come off. However as the rain continued to fall and the surface became ever more slicker we began to drop off and back when we didn't have possession - this surrendered the middle of the park to their midfield who were well capable of making use of the space afforded to them. Make use of it they did when their No 11 found space on the right hand side of our six yard box to strike one in on the half volley. The hope was we could hold out for 10 minutes or so until half time and get re-organised. Unfortunately it was not the case and they quickly got two more, the third coming from a smart shot from outside the area which took advantage of the slick surface and gave Greg no chance. With only a couple of minutes to go until half time we got a lifeline when Lannigan again scored from a corner. We re-organised at half time reverting to 4-4-2 putting Rafa back into a more normal forward position. The second half on the increasingly sodden surface became an exercise in making sure passes were weighted accordingly or else there was no chance of retaining possession, something we found difficult to do as we were having to work very hard to get the ball in the first place. Ten minutes into the second half Grundy came on to replace a very injured McHugh - here was his chance to redeem himself. Unfortunately twenty minutes later he pulled a hamstring covering at full back - clearly a season in goal having contributed to this - and was replaced for a final flurry by Cheesy (injured groin and all). In the last five minutes as was to be expected there were a couple of crosses/ long balls from Rawsthorn and Lowcock into their area which might have resulted in something but didn't. So for the second year Old Bolts were our nemesis. In truth they were the better team and, rarely and for the last time, we were forced to agree with the League President that Goalie Greg was our best player. There was no lack of effort from everyone and Mews, as a makeshift centre half, Chris Pye, in the first half when he saw the ball and Lannigan were the pick of our team. The officials were also to be applauded as they refereed the game sensibly given the conditions and even resisted the usual temptation to book Lowcock - who confronted by four officials was not sure who to abuse. Finally in the spirit of gratitude thanks to the travelling Broughton Barmy Army (which effectively consisted of Trevor "Mr Broughton" Lafferty, Marcin, Rawsthorn Snr and the Ali Mews Appreciation Society who all turned out on a horrible evening. Finally the highlight of the evening was sharing the Bolton Wyresdale clubhouse with an Emmerdale starlet, a bona fide WAG. - IW

Sat. 10th Sept 2011	V	Bolton Wyresdale 'B' (a) 2 - 0 (ht.1-0) scorers : M. Buxton, T. Bowerman
		After losing pretty much the entire squad from last year, it has taken a lot of effort to put together a new team at relatively short notice. Because of the difficulties of getting the team together there hadn’t been the opportunity to arrange many friendlies before the season started. This meant that we went to Bolton with most players not knowing each others names, never mind how they played the game. Losing the two forwards pencilled in to start up front meant that we had to rethink the way we were going to play and we started with a 4-5-1 formation to fit in the players available. Bolton Wyresdale started the stronger side but didn’t really threaten our goal as the lack of game time this team has had was evident. However, we started to get into the game after 15 minutes and began to create some chances. The scoring was opened after a Braithwaite throw-in caused problems in the box and their defence managed to blocked shots from T.Bowerman, M.Bowerman and Wareing before the ball fell to Buxton on the edge of the area who’s first time shot cleared a mass of bodies before finding the bottom corner. Bolton came at us early in the second half but our back four were in excellent form, particularly Turner and man-of-the-match Wilson. The communication from veteran centre-back, Major, helped the team keep its shape and with Latham protecting the defence, they never really managed to create any clear cut chances. We started to get back on top and T.Bowerman missed a good chance to double the score after some good work from Connelly before being brought down on the edge of the area when through on goal. The Bolton centre-back was lucky not to see red but was booked for the challenge. His centre-back partner was also lucky to stay on the pitch after a late tackle on M.Bowerman. Harle and J.Bowerman were brought on to freshen things up and Harle started to play some decent balls which opened the game up in our favour. Wareing started to cause problems down the right hand side and created some good chances that we probably should have scored a couple of goals from. Just as Bolton looked like they might be able to get back into the game our second goal was scored. A long-ball by goalkeeper Huddleston put T.Bowerman through on goal and he cooled slotted the ball past their keeper. We will certainly come up against better sides this season but it was pleasing to keep a clean sheet while creating so many chances. We’ll need to be more clinical in the final third against the better sides but it was a good victory considering how new the team is and how little preparation we’d had for this game. - MB
Sat. 24th Sept 2011 LAL Cup Rd 1	V	Rossendale Ams 'B' (a) 2 - 10 (ht.1-7) scorers : OG, M. Howarth
		To cause a cup upset, you need a settled team, a good performance and a bit of luck. What you can’t do is turn up without a recognised goalkeeper, any centre-backs, two players making their first appearance for the club and a further three making just their second. However, these were the circumstances we faced when we travelled to Rossendale, last years cup winners and a side three divisions above us. We started the game with our joint top scorer in goals and T.Bowerman was called into action twice in the first minute before we broke down the right and a Wareing cross was met by debutant Balch whose effort was turned in by a Rossendale defender to put us a goal up. Unfortunately the lead didn’t last long and Rossendale equalised after the referee ignored the offside shouts. They quickly added a second to turn the game around. The rest of the half was pretty much one way traffic as the Broughton make-shift centre-backs struggled to protect the make-shift goalkeeper. We were 7-1 down at half time and had nothing to play for but pride in the second half. Buxton was moved to centre-back with Whittle pushing into midfield and Balch dropped into the middle to give us a bit more help in midfield. We did perform better in the second half with Howarth, Balch and Wareing looking dangerous every time we did go forward. Howarth scored an excellent solo goal from outside the area after beating a couple of players before hitting the inside of the post from a free-kick. Rossendale scored a few more and fully deserved to large score line that they won by. It’s hard to be too negative because we were missing key players for key positions and that in turn weakened us in other areas of the pitch. We did look good going forward but we didn’t get the opportunity to do so very often. Back to the league next week and we have a good opportunity to put a few wrongs right with our first home game of the season. - MB
Sat. 1st Oct 2011	V	Chaddertonians 'B' (h) 7 - 0 (ht.4-0) scorers : T. Bowerman, N. Balch 3, C. Whittle, C. Ryan, M. Turner
		Team: A.Bedford; M.Turner, J.Major, M.Buxton, S.Connelly; C.Whittle, M.Bowerman, T.Bowerman, D.Harle (J.Bowerman); N.Balch; C.Ryan. Our first home game of the season and a chance to banish the demons of last weeks cup humiliation. We welcomed to the team goalkeeper Bedford and veteran centre-back Major to try and improve on the defensive shambles we served up last week and it this allowed last weeks ‘keeper T.Bowerman to get back into an outfield shirt and it didn’t take him long to put us a goal up with a neat finish after beating a couple of defenders. We also welcomed Craig Ryan back to Broughton after long absence and he was brought down inside the area, the referee pointed to the spot but a very late offside call came and the ref changed him mind. Moments later, Ryan put us two-up with a header after some good play from Harle on the left. Goal scorer turned provider after Ryan chased a lost cause ball, managed to keep it in, avoid a couple of tackles before cutting it inside to Balch whose clever dummy fooled the last defender and allowed him to hammer home into the empty net. Right-midfielder Whittle missed a good opportunity before scoring our fourth in a chance almost exactly the same as the one he’d just missed. Half-time was welcomed by all the players as the autumn heat-wave was taking its toll on both teams. Chaddertonians came at us early on in the second half but our defence held firm and stopped our opponents getting any clear cut chances. Man-of-the-match Balch scored his second and our fifth after more good work from Ryan, before Balch completed his hat-trick moments later. Ryan missed a number of good chances to get the goals that his performance and effort deserved. The best goal of the game was saved for last; a Charlie Adam-esque ball from M.Bowerman found full-back Turner on one of his trademark runs and he hammered home with a finish that was compared to the goal scored by Carlos Alberto Torres for Brazil against Italy in the 1970 World Cup final. All-in-all a good, solid performance and another clean sheet. We’ve looked dangerous going forward in all three matches so far this season and if we can get a regular ‘keeper and back four, we should continue to do well. Next week we travel to current league leaders Hesketh Casuals. - MB
Sat. 8th Oct 2011	V	Hesketh Casuals 'B' (a) 2 - 1 (ht.2-0) scorers : C. Whittle, C. Ryan
		Away to Hesketh Casuals in an early season top-of-the-table clash as we took on the only team above us in the league; a young team with a lot of ability and one that has played together for a number of years. To continue this season’s trend we had a number of players missing from last weeks emphatic win over Chaddertonians and welcomed in numerous replacements. For the third week in a row, we took an early lead after Whittle, who is improving every week, managed to get a shot in after a scuffle in their area and score his second in as many games. We quickly doubled our lead after a quick, long kick from ‘keeper Huddleston was not dealt with by the Hesketh defence and Balch managed set-up Craig Ryan who fired past the helpless Hesketh stopper. After that it was pretty much one way traffic towards our goal. Hesketh created chance after chance without really testing Huddleston, who dealt with everything comfortably. Our best chance fell to Balch but his effort was well saved and the follow-up chances were well defended. The second half continued in much the same fashion as the first half finished, with Hesketh being on top without every making the most of their possession. They did come close from a corner but the ball was cleared off the line by Turner. Hesketh eventually got a reward for their effort with 8 minutes to go when a long ball beat our otherwise solid defence and their forward lobbed the advancing Huddleston – the first goal we’ve conceded in the league so far this season. They never really looked like getting an equaliser despite throwing everyone forward for the last few minutes. This was an excellent win against one of the sides that will be near the top at the end of the season. Not many sides will win here and we showed a different side to our game to what we did last week. We still need to get a settled side but at least the options are there now and players are going to have to maintain good form to stay in the team. - MB
Sat. 22nd Oct 2011	V	Little Lever SC 'A' (h) 2 - 2 (ht.1-1) scorers : N. Balch 2
		For the second match in a row we faced the side that started the day at the top of the table. For the first time this season, we didn't have to make mass changes from our last match. However, that didn't show as we went a goal behind in the first couple of minutes. Some players seemed to stop after a blatant handball wasn’t given by the referee and the player that handled the ball played a long-ball over our defence to play in their forward who beat Huddleston with a good finish. The next 15-20 minutes weren’t much better and Little Lever were on top without creating any other clear chances. We started to get into the match and created a few half chances before drawing level; we had a corner, it was cleared as far as Bury whose deep cross found Balch at the back post who rounded the ‘keeper and his shot managed to avoid the three defenders that were desperately trying to clear it off the line. We were the better side for the remainder of the first half but neither side managed to test the two goalkeepers. We started the second half as we finished the first and ten minutes into the half a clever flick from T.Bowerman put Balch through on goal and he easily finished to score his second of the match and put us 2-1 up. After the goal Little Lever came at us and started to commit players forward whilst leaving them short at the back. Balch should have completed his hat-trick after a cross from Wareing found him at the back post and T.Bowerman and C.Ryan both missed half chances. Subs, Wareing and Harle, found a lot of space on wings but we were slow in supporting them. We also failed to support C.Ryan who was winning every header throughout the match. The back four of Turner, Dilworth, Bury and Lowde limited Little Lever to long balls and shots from outside the area which never really looked like troubling Huddleston. Other than when Turner cleared a chance off the line from a corner but they never really looked like getting an equaliser until they broke with a few minutes left and their forward was brought down in the area by Bury. They scored from the resulting penalty to draw level. We almost scored in the last moments of the match but C.Ryan’s shot has deflected inches past the post. A draw was probably a fair result in the end; Little Lever had more possession but we had the better chances. It’s always frustrating to concede early and late goals but we remain unbeaten in the league and the team is starting to look more settled. - MB
Sat. 29th Oct 2011	V	Horwich Victoria 'A' (a) 2 - 7 (ht.1-4) scorers : S. Rawsthorne, Bury
		For the third match in a row we played one of the sides that will be challenging for promotion this season in Division 7. We planned to attack them early on and put them under some early pressure. Horwich kicked off and we quickly forced them into conceding a corner. An excellent delivery from Latham found centre-back Bury at the back post and he forced the ball home to give us a lead within 60 seconds of the start of the match – exactly what the manager ordered. Unfortunately our lead only lasted a couple of minutes and Horwich quickly equalised. We continued to put pressure on our hosts and should have gone back ahead on a number of occasions. Balch hit the crossbar from a close range header, a definite penalty wasn’t given to us after a Horwich player controlled the ball with his hand and Balch saw an effort go just past the post after he was played in by T.Bowerman. Horwich made us pay for our missed chances (and the ref not giving us that stonewall penalty) when they were awarded a penalty of their own, when Dilworth brought down a forward through on goal, which they scored from. Two Horwich goals late in the half all but killed the game off. We started the second half in the same fashion as the first and scored within a minute after Rawsthorn took advantage of a mix-up between the Horwich goalkeeper and defence and pulled a goal back from close range. We didn’t manage to build on this and Horwich took control of the game and they made the sure of the victory with the help of some lucky goals including a shinned cross from the by-line which somehow floated into the top corner. We started the game well and were punished for not taking the good chances we created. Some players let their heads drop when we went behind and others let some bad refereeing decisions affect their game but in the end we can’t complain because the better side on the day won. Next week see us travel to Thornleigh – another side that will fancy their chances of going up this season! - MB
Sat. 5th Nov 2011	V	Thornleigh 'B' (a) 1 - 4 (ht.1-2) scorers : T. Bowerman
		Sometimes you play poorly and win and sometimes you play well and lose – this was one of those times. Looking back, it is incredible that we didn’t win this match by a similar score line to the one we lost by. We worked hard, passed the ball well and played some good intelligent football but somehow didn’t get the result that we deserved. We had an early chance when T.Bowerman ran onto a long ball by brother M.Bowerman but the advancing Thornleigh ‘keeper got there first, cleared it against our forward and the ball deflected inches wide. Moments later a Thornleigh forward charged down a Broughton centre-back on the half way line and the ball fell nicely for him to break through and hammer home past Huddleston. Balch saw a cracking effort hit the crossbar and we went close a couple of times before a long ball by a Thornleigh defender cleared our defence, Huddleston came out his area to head clear but the ball bounced over his head and allowed one of their forwards to put the ball in the empty net. Despite the score we dominated possession and caused them a lot of problems. Brathwaite had a couple of thunderous shots with one being well saved and the over just going over. We finally got a reward our dominance when Whittle played T.Bowerman through on goal and his lobbed shot from a tight angle went in off the back post. At half time we felt that if we continued to play as we were we would go on to win the match. It looked as through we equalised when Balch shot from the edge of the area but it hit the inside of the post, went across goal and was eventually cleared. Another Balch shot was spilled by the Thornleigh ‘keeper and as T.Bowerman was about to tap it into the empty net, a cruel bobble took it away from him. A couple of long range shots from Wareing and Turner went close to getting an equaliser. Thornleigh went 3-1 up after their left-back cleared an under-hit Broughton pass and his punt beat our centre-backs to put their forward one-on-one with Huddleston. The forward rounded our ‘keeper with an over-hit touch but the ball only staying in because of the slight hill on the pitch and the long grass and he managed to get the ball back under control and put the ball in the net. We continued to dominate possession but our heads were starting to drop. With ten minutes to go, another long-ball resulted in their fourth goal; this time Cornwall did manage to get something on it, but his header went straight up and he lost it in the air and, of course, it fell to the feet of a Thornleigh player who had the easy job of putting it in. Fair play to Thornleigh; the soaked up the pressure and made the most of the chances they had. It’s hard to be too critical of any of our players because it was probably the best performance of the season but we just didn’t have that little bit of luck that you sometimes need. - MB
Sat. 12th Nov 2011	V	O. Blacks 'C' (h) 2 - 7 (ht.1-4) scorers : P. Harford 2
		We welcomed the only side in Division 7 with 100% record with the hope of being able to alter that. Old Blacks arrived with some familiar faces that we knew were going to cause us problems and that proved to be true. Despite playing some good football, particularly down the left-hand side with Iddon and Seddon, we found ourselves 2-0 down with pretty much the only two chances Old Blacks got. P.Harford pulled a goal back after beating the ‘keeper at his near post. We were unlucky not to concede a penalty before Harford broke from the halfway line to go one-on-one with the ‘keeper but his effort went narrowly wide. Old Blacks scored a couple more before half-time from the few limited attacks that they had. Despite the scoreline, we felt the game was still alive and if we could turn our procession into chances we could get right back into the game. Seddon and Wareing were withdrawn at half-time due to injuries and Lowde and Murch moved into the middle. An early Old Blacks goal pretty much ended our hopes although we were unlucky not to instantly respond after Murch hit the bar from 30 yards. Old Blacks scored a couple more and P.Harford got his second of the game after a good finish inside the area. The score-line probably flattered Old Blacks a bit, but the better team won in the end. Old Blacks had a couple of players that would look good in the LAL Premier League and it’s hard to understand why they are playing in this division. - MB
Sat. 19th Nov 2011	V	Oldham Hulmeians 'B' (a) 1 - 2 (ht.0-0) scorers : T.Bowerman
		After a couple of late call-offs and some frantic phone calls we managed to get to Oldham with 12 players. Our 1 sub was dwarfed by the 5 Oldham boosted – more than the 4 Broughton teams had combined!! Despite that, we had a strong enough and fairly settled team (albeit with a few players returning from injury earlier than they would have liked) and were confident of being able to end our losing streak. We didn’t start well and we played better earlier in the season when we didn’t know each others names!! Oldham had a goal disallowed for offside in the first minute and for the rest of the half the Oldham players were first to almost every ball and put us under a lot of pressure and limited us to half chances. Huddleston made a couple of top draw, point blank saves to keep us in the first half and we really were lucky to get to half-time with the game scoreless. We started the second half much better and were ahead within a few minutes; Wareing beat several players before finding Balch (who’s first touch was the only thing to come near Huddleston’s first half save in terms of quality in this match) who found T.Bowerman and the forward found the bottom back corner with a first time shot. We should have doubled our lead moments later when Balch and T.Bowerman combined again; Balch won the ball in the area and crossed the ball to T.Bowerman but this time the shot went just wide of the post. After that the game reverted back to how it was in the first half and Oldham had most of the chances. A neat lob was well saved by Huddleston and pushed onto the bar; an Oldham winger got onto the rebound but couldn’t put the ball in the net because our keeper had knocked the nets down as he fell back into the net after the initial save. Huddleston made a couple of other good saves before Oldham equalised. When a ‘keeper is in this kind of form it takes a moment of class or some sheer luck to beat him and that’s what happened today. A tame effort rolled towards Huddleston who got down to collect the ball but a huge bobble took it over him and into the net. A few injury scares to Turner (ankle), Major (cheek) and Huddleston (hand) disrupted us further and Oldham took the league with a well placed shot into the bottom corner that just beat our injured ‘keeper. We had a few half chances to draw level with T.Bowerman almost getting onto an excellent free-kick from Latham and a corner from Buxton but we couldn’t really create any clearer cut chances for the forwards. A disappointing performance and result and those three back-to-back wins at the start of the season seem a long time ago now. Home next week and hopefully a few injuries and work schedules will have cleared up so we can get a much needed win. - MB
Sat. 3rd Dec 2011	V	Chaddertonians 'B' (a) 0 - 4 (ht.0-2) scorers : -
		Despite the heavy rain all week this game somehow went ahead. Things started badly when three of the twelve players in the squad didn’t turn up. Despite the other three Broughton matches being called off, a series of frantic phone calls didn’t result in any of the players contacted being able to play – probably because of the late notice and a Christmas night out in Liverpool! Luckily we managed to get two players to get us up to a full team – one player that has just come back from a long-term injury and first team manger, Doug Birc h, who played 90 minutes for the first time in five years. So we headed to bottom of the table Chadderton with eleven players. Unfortunately for us, Chaddertonians had a couple of matches called off and they filled their side with players from their 2nd and 3rd team with only one or two players surviving from the team we beat 7-0 earlier in the season. With no subs we had no linesman so their subs ran both lines while their manager refereed the match. We started with a 3-5-2 formation to try and accommodate the players we had but a lot of early pressure forced us to change to 4-4-2 to stop the threat coming from the wings. After the change we started to get into the match and were unlucky not to go ahead from a corner: Balch’s shot was cleared off the line but only as far as Birch who headed towards the goal only for his effort to also be cleared off the line. Shortly after that Chaddertonians did break the deadlock after beating our offside trap. We looked good when Wareing and debutant Towner got on the ball on the wings but we only really managed a couple of long range efforts. Chaddertonians scored their second with pretty much the last kick of the half. The second half started like the first ended with Chaddertonians scoring meaning that we lost two goals in less than twenty seconds of football. We did improve after that and the highlights include Braithwaite’s Cruyff turn with three players around him, a couple of outstanding saves by ‘keeper Bedford and some good runs by Towner. M.Bowerman was lucky his leg wasn't broken by a very poor tackle from a player nearly seven-feet tall and was lucky not to be carded after his reaction. Chaddertonians scored their fourth with a header from a corner towards the end of the match. Obviously it’s disappointing to lose to the team bottom of the league but considering the circumstances, we did okay. We had eleven players. We had our two normal forwards in the centre-midfield and our right-back at centre-back. We had three new players and we were up against a side made up of players that normally play at least four divisions above us. The major positives were the performances of Brathwaite, new boy Towner and Matt 'Gary Neville' Turner. Special thanks to Birch for playing and working hard on his own up-front. - MB
Sat. 18th Feb 2012	V	Thornleigh 'B' (h) 2 - 2 (ht.2-0) (KO: 2.30pm) scorers : K. Towner 2
		Despite the over-night heavy rain, the Broughton pitch just about passed as playable and the fourth team were back in action for the first time since early December. We started the match brightly and the two forwards, Towner and Balch, linked up well to cause Thornleigh some early problems. Towner scored his first goal for Broughton with a good strike inside the area. The Thornleigh ‘keeper dragged the ball from behind the line and play continued only for the Thornleigh linesman to show some refreshing honestly and award the goal. We almost doubled the lead when Towner forced their ‘keeper into a terrific save with a good shot from distance. Not to be outdone, Huddleston, retuning from a broken thumb, made an equally good save when the big Thornleigh forward looked set to score from a yard out. We did double our lead before half-time after Balch closed down the Thornleigh ‘keeper and his kick only went as far as Towner who scored his second with a well placed shot from 30 yards. An injury to centre-back Bury was the only negative of a decent first half performance. We started the second half with the hope of being able to attack in the better half of the pitch. Unfortunately, the bad half of the pitch made it very difficult to get out of our half. Thornleigh scored to make it 2-1 after we failed to clear despite have a number of chances to do so. We did improve after they scored and wingers Braithwaite and Harle were getting a lot of joy against their full-backs but we didn’t make the most of the opportunities to break when we had them. T.Bowerman worked tirelessly in the middle of the pitch and full-backs Iddon and Buxton both played well. Thornleigh equalised with a decent goal from the edge of the area. We were a bit unlucky not to win the game with Balch and Towner having a few chances between them towards the end of the match. We played some good football at times on a poor pitch but sometimes played ourselves into trouble when we didn’t need to. It was good to get a game though!! - MB
Sat. 3rd Mar 2012	V	Bolton Wyresdale 'B' (h) 2 - 2 (ht.2-1) scorers : T. Bowerman, D.Harle
		We returned to action after giving the pitch a week off to recover from our last match but it looked like it needed a bit longer. Although it was in better condition, it still wasn’t ideal to play good, free-flowing football on. Bolton Wyresdale started off much better than we did but they didn’t really make their possession count. They seemed to have a couple of new players from earlier in the season and their midfield and attack were all good on the ball and linked up well without causing us much damage. We didn’t start very well but did manage to create a few opportunities. The Bolton ‘keeper made a superb save when T.Bowerman had been put through one-on-one. We took the lead after Balch controlled the ball in the area, passed back to M.Bowerman, whose shot hit Balch but fell to T.Bowerman who turned and shot and found the bottom corner. We doubled our lead shortly after when our left winger beat a couple of men before putting in a low cross which found D.Harle at the back post and his shot hit the far post and went in. We should have put the game beyond doubt with Balch hitting the crossbar from inside the 6-yard box, M.Bowerman having a goal bound shot blocked by his brother and the ‘Bolton keeper making two more top draw saves from Balch and T.Bowerman. Bolton got one back before half-time although there looked to be a clear foul on Major as the ball came in. We started the second half slowly again and Bolton quickly drew level after we failed to clear a corner. It was in the worst part of the pitch and kicking the ball at all was a challenge at times. We did improve after their second goal and the Wyresdale ‘keeper made another fine save from a M.Bowerman header. We were getting a lot of joy down the left-hand-side of the pitch and their right-back was subbed to give the poor guy a break. Another injury to Bury meant bringing on a forward for a centre-back, dropping Buxton, who had been excellent in the centre of the pitch, into defence and we pretty much played 4-2-4 for the last 20 minutes of the game. Braithwaite finished the game strongly as fired a shot narrowly wide and set up T.Bowerman with an excellent 40-yard pass only for the forward to be denied once again by the in-form goalkeeper. Positives: We created a lot of chances and would have won the game had it not been for some excellent goalkeeping. Huddleston, Major, Bury and Braitwaite are forming a much better understanding in defence. Negatives: We lost a 2-goal lead for the second match in a row. We started both halves slowly and took too long to adjust to the pitch. - MB
Sat. 10th Mar 2012	V	Hesketh Casuals 'B' (h) 1 - 3 (ht.1-1) scorers : M. Bowerman
		We welcomed a young Hesketh side to Broughton and arguably the best foot-balling side in the division and a team that will quickly rise up the leagues as they mature and gain experience - if they stay together. We had beat them earlier in the season but we onlyhad three players in the team today that played in that early season win. We started the match with a 3-4-3 formation to make the most of our good forward options but for the first 20 minutes it was more like a 5-4-1 as Hesketh had a lot of the ball and pushed us back, although they didn’t really create many chances. We took the lead when a long throw by Buxton was met by M.Bowerman just outside the 6-yard box and his powerful header found the top corner. This gave us some confidence and we started to play a bit of football and our wide players, Wareing and Braithwaite, managed to get a bit further up the pitch and get the shape we hoped for at the start of the match. We should have doubled our lead after some persistent play by T.Bowerman forced the Hesketh defence into gifting him a one-on-one but the chance was fired narrowly wide. We looked to be heading into the break with a deserved lead after we defended a number of corners in a row but gifted an equaliser in the last few minutes of the half; we were awarded a free-kick for off-side, our centre-backs played it short to each other and then back to the ‘keeper, who played a dummy to the advancing forward before passing back to the centre-back only for the ball to stop in the mud and leave an open net for their forward to score in. We started the second half confident we could get the win because we were creating the better chances despite not having as much possession as the visitors. Balch almost put us ahead again but he fired narrowly over from inside the area. Unfortunately, we went behind to an excellent goal early in the half. Their winger cut inside, beating two players and his powerful shot hit the inside of the near post and left our ‘keeper with no chance. We brought on Harle and changed to a more solid 4-4-2 formation and started to force Hesketh back. With about 15 minutes left, we had a 5-minute spell which summed up our luck in recent matches. Towner was played through from the half-way line, tried to lob the ‘keeper who was outside the area, but didn’t get enough height on the ball, the ‘keeper saved it with his hands but the referee didn’t give the free-kick and definite red card (although Towner should really have scored anyway). Hesketh went down the other end and scored a goal which was clearly offside but the referee ignored the call from the linesman and awarded the goal to put us 3-1 down. We then won and missed a penalty and there went our chance to get anything from the match. We really need to start taking more of our good chances and stop gifting soft goals if we are to turn around this slump. We aren’t getting the results that our efforts and performances deserve but we keep making it difficult for ourselves. Away to top of the league next week!! - MB
Sat. 17th Mar 2012	V	O. Blackburnians 'C' (a) 1 - 7 (ht.-) scorers : N. Balch
		We travelled to play top of the league with another patched up side which forced us to play a number of people out of position but at least we were playing on a decent pitch for the first time in months. We started the match brightly and limited the hosts to long range shots whilst we tried to cause them problems on the break. We should have gone ahead after about 20 minutes but the stretching Balch somehow managed to put the ball over from less than a yard out. Shortly after we gave the ball away cheaply in midfield and Old Blacks broke quickly and scored. We then had a number of half chances with shots from the edge of their area and we were unlucky not to equalise when Bury hit the crossbar from a free-kick 30 yards out. Old Blacks doubled their lead shortly before the break after another quick counter attack. We were reasonably confident of being able to get back into the match at half time but knew the next goal was vital. We started the first half well and had a couple of chances from corners with M.Bowerman heading wide and then over. Old Blacks got the vital next goal when our centre-back misjudged a header and the ball sailed over him to put their forward one-on-one and he fired past Huddleston. This lead to us losing the plot for a while and we quickly lost another goal. We made a couple of changes and moved to a from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2 formation and that had an instant impact with Balch scoring the best goal of the match as he beat two players and shot from outside the area. Unfortunately, the revival was short lived and Old Blacks scored a couple more as we lost our shape and the two in the middle of midfield started to get over-run and tire. Huddleston made a couple of very good saves towards the end of the match to keep the score line down but they did manage to add a seventh. T.Bowerman almost scored a wonder goal after beating three players in the box but the fourth managed to block the shot. It’s hard to be too disappointed with the result because the truth is Old Blacks are the outstanding team in this division and it’s hard to see past them winning the league. They have a number of players that should be playing for higher teams in their club and they caused us problems throughout the match. The first half was encouraging and with a bit of luck we could have been ahead at half-time and made a bit more of a match of it. - MB
Sat. 24th Mar 2012	V	Little Lever SC 'A' (a) 1 - 3 (ht.0-1) scorers : T. Barnes
		This match report writing business is getting very repetitive now. It’s the same story almost every week; we start well, don’t score our chances, concede a goal, have a dodgy spell where we concede more goals and finish strongly. I’m afraid it’s the same again this week. We headed to south Bolton to play our third game in a row against a team from the top four but felt confident we had a team strong enough to get a result on a decent pitch in glorious conditions. We started brightly and played some decent football and created a number of chances. Braithwaite and M.Bowerman shot over from outside the area before Buxton forced their ‘keeper into a quality same with another long range shot. T.Bowerman had a glancing header well saved from a few yards out and Prendeville hit the crossbar with a well hit strike. Little Lever didn’t have any chances of note until 5 minutes before half-time, a poor shot hit one of their players back heel and the deflection put their forward one-on-one with Huddleston and he scored to put them ahead. We felt we could still win the game at half-time but Little Lever came out much stronger in the second half and forced us back and their young forward started to cause us a lot of problems. They doubled their lead shortly after the re-start after a poor first touch from a goal-kick fell to one of their midfielders and his scuffed shot found the bottom corner. They quickly added a third and pretty much killed off the match. We made a chance had a re-shuffle and this did help us get back into the match. T.Bowerman put the ball over after he re-acted to a deflection and someone shot wide when they were one-on-one. Barnes scored from a free-kick to give us a chance with 10 to go but we couldn’t get another to make it interesting. - MB
Sat. 31st Mar 2012	V	Horwich RMI 'A' (a) 1 - 0 (ht.0-0) scorers : J. Adamson
		We headed to Horwich with the belief that this was a game that could kick-start our season (in April?) and set us up for a strong finish. We had three subs a couple of hours before kick-off but lost last weeks goal-scorer to the second team and Harle to the third team. This still left us with a strong team after we welcomed the three Craig’s and Hayhurst back into the squad. The recent good weather left the pitch in state that made it difficult to play football and even more difficult to avoid injuries. We started the game strongly without really creating any decent chances. Horwich didn’t get any as both defences were on top. We attempted to play out from the back more this week and full-backs Buxton and Hayhurst were doing a good job of bringing the ball out. Huddleston dealt with everything that came his way well and we never looking in danger of conceding. Overall, the quality wasn’t great from either team but the pitch really was the problem. In the second half, we had the wind and the hill in our favour but started the half slowly and relied on a couple of good, last ditch tackles to keep the scores level. This gave us a kick up the arse and we started to control things again. M.Bowerman went off due to an injury picked up in the first half. There still weren’t very many chances and the game looked likely to finish scoreless until Adamson met a superb cross from Hayhurst and big ‘J’ stabbed it home to put us ahead with less that 15 minutes remaining. Injuries to Balch, Bury, Major and Hayhurst meant that Horwich were able to put us under serious pressure for the first time in the match but everyone dug deep and we saw the game out. Big J worked hard up front and Balch did a great job of holding the ball up. T.Bowerman didn’t stop running for the entire match, the three Craig’s all did a good job, and Bury was composed at the back. Hopefully we can build on this win and finish by getting some results that our performances deserve – because we’ve played much better than this and lost games this season. - MB
Sat. 7th Apr 2012	V	Horwich Victoria 'A' (h) 1 - 2 (ht.1-1) scorers : o.g.
		Up against top of the league and a few Broughton old-boys meant that that this match was going to be a big challenge. Horwich Victoria came to Broughton with 13 wins out of 14 in the league and had conceded just one goal in the last four matches. We had an entirely different back-four from our win the previous week as we made 5 changes to the starting XI from that game. We welcomed Hesketh and a few players that played a part in our early season good form. We had 7 players in the squad that between them had played less than 300 minutes of 11-a-side football in 2012. It’s fair to say that the odds were against us. Despite that, we started the game brightly and created the first good chance with Big J forcing the Horwich ‘keeper into a good save. After 10 minutes we took the lead after a cock-up between the Horwich centre-back and ‘keeper; Balch put the defender under pressure from a long ball and he headed it back to the ‘keeper but he had come charging out to claim it and the ball rolled into the empty net. Horwich came at us but didn’t create many clear cut chances. They eventually equalised shortly before half-time after we lost the ball in midfield because of a bad bobble. Horwich went ahead early in the second half after we gave a cheap free-kick away outside the area and a decent delivery hit two or three Broughton players before going in as we returned the early favour of an own goal. There weren’t many chances after that although Horwich did have more procession and pressure. An injury to Latham forced us to change things around a bit and we didn’t really look like getting an equaliser after that. Our energy levels dropped as the players that haven’t played much recently tired. Horwich deserved their win but they were made to work hard for it. We had plenty of positives. The performance of T.Bowerman and Bury in centre-midfield was very good. The return of players that have missed a lot of games recently for different reasons was a boost and should allow us to finish the season strongly, starting with another home game on Tuesday. - MB
Tue. 10th Apr 2012	V	Howe Bridge Mills 'A' (h) 1 - 3 (ht.1-1) scorers : T. Bowerman
		Well, after a two week break we went back to the status quo … another hard luck story. Without raiding the other three Broughton teams, we managed to put out one of the strongest teams we’ve had all season. Unfortunately, evening matches tend to be a mixture of players from the club doing the travelling and that seemed to be the case today as we came up against a side that were every bit as good as the league leaders we faced on Saturday. As we have done so often this season, we started well and put our opponents under pressure. Balch and Wareing were particular stand-out performers early on and they linked up to create the opening goal; a superb ball from Balch found Wareing who made a good run into the box, beat two players and shot against the post when a goal looked certain. The rebound fell kindly to T.Bowerman who nodded the ball past the two defenders on the line. The lead didn’t last long and frustratingly their goal should never have counted after a two handed push on Lannigan put on the ground and allowed their forward to go one-on-one with Huddleston and slot home. Lannigan almost made up for his “mistake” from a corner when his header went narrowly wide. We started the second half well and sub Andy had a powerful shot from outside the area well saved. From the resulting corner we had a stonewall penalty turned down for a foul on Lannigan, Howe Bridge went straight to the other end and were awarded a penalty of their own after a foul by Wareing. The penalty was well struck and left Huddleston with no chance. We changed to a 3-4-3 formation to try and get back into the match but Howe Bridge seemed to get stronger as they made their changes. They sealed the game with a late third goal. I don’t like to blame referees for losing but some big decisions went against us and it was one of the worst (and most expensive) performances seen this season. Anyway, we have the chance to put the record straight as we visit Howe Bridge on Saturday. Does anyone know where it is?? - MB
Sat. 14th Apr 2012	V	Howe Bridge Mills 'A' (a) 4 - 0 (ht.2-0) scorers : N. Balch 2, Sparke 2
		We travelled to Howe Bridge with a strong sense of injustice after our mid-week defeat and were keen to avenge that result. We were missing five players from that squad with Major, Latham, Turner, Wareing and Lannigan all unavailable for different reasons. However, we were able to welcome back Braithwaite, M.Bowerman and Harrington. We certainly had a weaker squad but arguably a slightly stronger starting XI. We started with a 3-5-2 formation to best fit in the players we did have available and it worked well for us. We expected Howe Bridge to be considerably weaker than they were on Tuesday but they were almost exactly the same side that beat us. There wasn’t too much in it to start with as neither side created any clear chances. Buxton, Bury and Harrington dealt with their attack with relative ease and other than a couple of times we got outnumbered on our right, the wing-backs, Catlow and Braithwaite, did their jobs perfectly of defending first but getting forward with speed. This led to our opener. We broke on the right and a superb ball from Braithwaite put in Balch who beat the offside trap and fired into the bottom corner. Balch almost doubled his total immediately but his volley went inches wide of the post. Bury went close with a free-kick but his shot hit the wrong side of the post. Braitwaite went on a great run from the right back position, beating six of their players, before tripping over the ball on the edge of their area just as he was about to score a wonderful goal. We did double our lead after Balch closed down their ‘keeper and blocked a clearance and scored from a tight angle after he stopped the ball going out of play. With a few minutes left of the first half, Howe Bridge was awarded their second penalty in a week against us. Huddleston, who has been almost faultless for us this season and has easily been one of our most consistent performers this season, pushed over a player as a corner was taken and left the ref with no other option. For some reason, the spot kick was taken away from the forward that scored an excellent penalty against us a few days ago and was taken by someone who shot at the perfect height for Huddleston to make up for his mistake and make the save. At half-time we knew there was still a lot of work to do if we were to hold onto the lead. We‘ve failed to win far too many matches this season after we’ve been ahead. The two big lads upfront worked hard to keep the ball in their half of the pitch and caused the Howe Bridge defence problems throughout the match. Sparke was rewarded for his efforts after Balch found him at the back post. We were a bit lucky to get this goal as there was a clear shout of, “MINE!!” Howe Bridge seemed to lose all their discipline after this goal and were lucky not to get a couple of players sent off; first for a tackle on Sparke (the ref had a red out but was (rightly) talked out of it from players on both teams and then their full-back kicked out at Bury). We maintained our disciple and saw out a period of pressure where our opponents hit both the post and the bar. We brought on our only sub, and he helped take some of the pressure off us as we went 4-5-1 for the final stages. Sparke used all his strength to see off a couple of challenges as he went through on the ‘keeper and effortlessly fired past him for his second of the match with about ten minutes to go. This really was a good result for us as a few things finally started to go our way. We took our chances, kept our shape and discipline for the entire match and never stopped working. The back three were solid through-out and were well protected by M.Bowerman and T.Bowerman. The wing-backs looked like they’d played there regularly all season. Balch worked hard and looked like opening Howe Bridge up every time he got the ball and the big lads upfront, Sparke and Adamson, made a nuisance of themselves throughout the match. We’ve been threatening to do this to a team for a while now and hopefully we can finish the season with four equally impressive performances. - MB
Wed. 18th Apr 2012	V	Bury GS 'B' (h) 3 - 1 (ht.0-0) scorers : N. Balch 3
		The long journey after work for the boys from Bury meant that only 9 of their 14 players arrived in time for kick-off. With us being able to field the same team, other than Monks replacing injured M.Bowerman, and formation as the team that did so well on Saturday, we should have been able to make the most of our two player advantage. However, almost every player failed to get started and seemed to treat the match like a training game. We didn’t create any real chances of note and were lucky not to go behind after a good header beat Huddleston and just went wide of the empty net. To Bury GS’s credit, they worked incredibly hard and having a few older lads at the back helped them remain organised until their late players arrived. We did slightly improve once it got to 11 vs. 11 but it still wasn’t great. We should have been awarded a penalty for a foul on Monks but the young ref evened it out when we waved away a good claim of the visitors. Sparke and Monks had long range efforts without really troubling the ‘keeper. We did improve after the break but it was Bury GS that took the lead after a cross hit a Broughton defenders back and the deflection beat Huddleston who had come out to claim the cross. This seemed to spark us to life and we then started to create a number of chances. With 25 minutes to go, we brought on Harle to play in the holding role and allowed Balch to play as a forward and this seemed to make the difference. A superb header from Sparke put Balch through on goal and he finished well. Balch was then wrongly flagged offside after Monks did well to draw in the defenders and then find our forwards. Balch then missed a chance as the ‘keeper got down to his feet and saved well. With 15 minutes to go, the introduction of “wee man” caused Bury GS a lot more problems as his hard work and pace livened things up further. Monks won a free-kick, which was well delivered by Bury (our centre-back, not our opponents) and "hit" Balch on the back and went in to put us ahead. Some excellent persistent play from substitute Dave allowed himself to get round a couple of players before finding Balch, who controlled the ball well and finished for his hat-trick. We never really got going in this match until they scored. Harrington and Buxton were solid throughout the match and T.Bowerman worked hard in the middle as usually. The wing-backs were effective again but it was the energy of the substitutes which turned the match around in our favour. Incredibly, this is the first game we’ve won this season after we’ve been behind in the match – so that’s something! - MB.
Sat. 28th Apr 2012	V	Bury GS 'B' (a) 0 - 4 (ht.0-2) scorers : -
		Away to Bury GS, the side we beat 3-1 at home recently, minus our regular ‘keeper and the player that helped change that match after he came off the bench, wee man. There were two downsides to losing our regular number 1; firstly we lost one of our most important and consistent players and secondly, his replacement was one of our inform players, Rob Catlow. Bury GS looked like they had a few new players in and their average age was considerably younger than when we last played. We stared with a 3-5-2 formation but the strong wind made it difficult to get the ball out of our half and it was pretty much all once way traffic for the first 45 minutes. Saying that, we did have a great chance when Balch played in Adamson, but the wind helped the ball onto the post with the ‘keeper well beaten. The deadlock was broken from a corner and a second was added minutes before the break. We hoped that with the wind behind us we would be able to cause our hosts some problems but we never really got going. Bury GS added two more on the break and were deserved winners. We need to improve if we are to get anything in our last two matches. MB
Mon. 30th Apr 2012	V	Horwich RMI 'A' (h) 0 - 0 (ht.0-0) scorers : -
		No Match report reqd.
Sat. 5th May 2012	V	Oldham Hulmeians 'B' (h) 2 - 2 (ht.0-1) scorers : N. Balch, J. Adamson
		It was our last game of the season and the usual struggle to get a team out. Luckily, a couple of late call-ups meant we started with a sub!! We were against bottom of the league and a team we were keen to beat after they got a lucky win against us earlier in the season. We continued with the 3-5-2 formation; Huddleston returned to the nets; a back-three of Buxton, Pomfret (player 59 for the season) and Bury; a first start for wee man at right wing-back and Catlow was back out to left wing-back; midfield three of M.Bowerman, Braithwaite and Sparke; Balch and Adamson upfront; and for long spells in the first half we kept the ball well without really testing the visitors. The closest we came was when Bury had his free-kick tipped onto the bar and the rebound was cleared as M.Bowerman came in for the tap-in. We passed the ball around well but were caught out a couple of times by the Oldham front pair, who were lively throughout the match. Oldham took the lead after the ball stuck in the mud between Huddleston and Pomfret and allowed their forward to poke it in. We were lucky not to be 2-0 down before the break as Oldham broke from a corner, dribbled past Huddleston and shot but the ball was cleared off the line by Buxton. At half-time, Braithwaite swapped positions with Catlow to allow him more space to run with the ball, J.Bowerman came on for brother, M.Bowerman, and went upfront with Balch dropping into the holding role. We started the half strongly and another Bury free-kick hit the bar. We scored moments after this when they failed to deal with a Buxton long throw and Balch was there to score his twelfth goal of the season. We went ahead after a scramble in the box following a corner; J.Bowerman missed his kick but the ball hit him in the face and fell kindly for Adamson to score his second of the season. We were well on top after this and hit the bar for the third time when a cross/shot from wee man had the ‘keeper beat. With two minutes to go, our defence failed to deal with a long ball and it fell for their forward kindly and a neat lob levelled the scores. We played well for spells in this game but continue to make things difficult for ourselves by making mistakes in the wrong area of the pitch. Buxton had his best game of the season and Catlow was equally as impressive. Our lack of options in certain positions was evident again today and it means other key players end up out of position. Hopefully, with a couple more additions to the team, we can build on this season and get a bit more consistency next season because the players that have turned up regularly this season deserve better. MB

MID-SEASON FRIENDLY Sat. 7th Jan 2012		Broughton v Garstang FC (@ Myerscough) 2 - 2 (ht.0-2) scorers: J. Mottley, M. Howarth
		We returned to action of sorts with a friendly game against local West Lancs League rivals. The game was held on the Myerscough 3G pitch and covered 110 minutes over 3 periods with rolling subs. This was the first real run out for many since mid December - so some people were rolling more than others. We started with about 10 of the normal 1st team squad supplemented by 5 lads who have been coming training regularly - with 4th team manager Mick Bowerman starting at full back. The first 10 minutes were somewhat nervous with rustiness apparent all round but the game settled down into a stalemate - albeit with Garstang having the better of the game. Former Broughton man Ben Stuart had the first real chance - but his effort was well saved by Coulton and soon after Mottley went close. The first real incident of note came when Monks had a "coming together" with a Garstang lad. Your multi tasking correspondent - who also doubled as ref - was unsighted but Monks was despatched to the sin bin (another new idea ) and the rest of the game took on a new edge. Garstang took a deserved lead just before the end of the first period. Owen and Lever for once getting split too far apart and a good move lead to a decisive finish. The Cummins Bros made a late appearance and took the field part way into the second third and Sean, once he had his feet organised, started to combine well with Murch and Eccles and we started to exert some pressure. Bell by this time had made an appearance and having got warmed up made his first significant contribution by scything down his winger and depositing him second bounce into the nearby stream. The sin bin received its second victim (though he returned later to play a starring role in our first goal). Garstang took a 2 goal lead just before the second break so we had a hill to climb in the last 40 mins. The last period was our best. Howarth showed good control as front man but struggled to link with supporting midfielders, but made amends with a great finish to good work from Bell and Alston down the left - and we were back in the game. Eccles went close with a great run and drive and Kieren Cummins almost converted a cross from Nathen. Mottley - having taken a breather - devoted his energies to harassing the ref. Our equaliser came with just a minute to go and probably gave the game the correct result. Again Alston was involved and almost inevitably it went to our go-to man, Mr Mottley (newly restored to the game to prove i don't harbour a grudge) to beat his full back and bury the ball in the bottom corner. A worthwhile exercise - so thanks to everybody for co-operation in an experimental format. Congratulation to the lads from the 4th team, (Mick B , Tim B , Mick, Nathen and Chris) all of whom played a good part in the game and all looked more than capable. Tim Bowerman especially had an effective game at full back. db

PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY Sat. 13th Aug 2011		Broughton v Oswaldtwistle St. Marys FC (h) 3 - 2 (ht.1-1) KO: 1.30pm @ BROUGHTON scorers: A. Alston, Marcin Mierzejewski, Matt Harrington
		A real competitive match saw the visitors take the lead with a smart finish after 25 mins and us equalise on 40 mins when a classy passing move resulted in Alex smashing home from the left side of the box. Second half continued to be fairly even till on the hour mark, when Russell put a defence splitting pass through for Marcin to collect and neatly slide past the keeper. From then on we dominated and despite them scoring again after a soft penalty was conceded we clinched the win when Matt Harrington scored what proved to be the winning goal. We then proceeded to miss a few glorious chances to make the score line more emphatic, but we were well satisfied with a victory. Note: This Pre-Season friendly has been played between our two clubs (almost) every pre-season since 1993. Check out the Ossie St Marys website for more info on our long term friends and opponents. So far (after this match) playing record is: P.18 - W.11 - D.1 - L.6 - F.56 - A.37

POS	1st Team - Division 1	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Hindley Juniors	26	18	1	7	93	43	50	55
2	Old Blackburnians	26	15	5	6	74	44	30	50
3	Bolton Wyresdale	26	14	7	5	47	23	24	49
4	Mostonians	26	14	7	5	60	45	15	49
5	Roach Dynamos	26	13	6	7	56	52	4	45
6	Rochdale St. Clements Res	26	14	2	10	57	48	9	44
7	Tyldesley United	26	14	0	12	60	43	17	42
8	Radcliffe Town	26	12	4	10	68	58	10	40
9	Horwich RMI	26	9	6	11	45	57	-12	33
10	Broughton Ams *	26	11	3	12	59	63	-4	32
11	Rossendale Ams Res	26	7	5	14	45	62	-17	26
12	Thornleigh	26	6	7	13	46	59	-13	25
13	Prairie United	26	4	0	22	47	103	-56	12
14	Ainsworth *	26	3	3	20	50	107	-57	8
	* points deducted

POS	2nd Team - Division 4	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Prestwich Res	26	23	2	1	93	22	71	71
2	Oldham Hulmeians Res	26	18	3	5	92	51	41	57
3	Horwich Victoria Res	26	13	7	6	75	42	33	46
4	Accrington Ams Res	26	13	3	10	75	70	5	42
5	Rochdale St. Clements 'A'	26	13	2	11	56	51	5	41
6	Old Blackburnians 'A'	26	12	5	9	74	70	4	41
7	Broughton Ams *	26	11	6	9	57	47	10	35
8	Astley Bridge	26	9	5	12	73	85	-12	32
9	Mostonians Res *	26	9	5	12	60	73	-13	28
10	Rossendale Ams 'B'	26	7	6	13	60	80	-20	27
11	Horwich RMI Res	26	6	8	12	51	78	-27	26
12	Dobbies *	26	7	5	14	69	91	-22	22
13	Bolton Wyresdale Res	26	6	1	19	43	97	-54	19
14	Old Standians Res	26	4	4	18	49	70	-21	16
	* 4pts points deducted

POS	3rd Team - Division 6	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Thornleigh 'A'	22	16	4	2	72	21	51	52
2	Old Boltonians 'B'	22	16	3	3	69	34	35	51
3	Broughton Ams	22	13	4	5	52	27	25	43
4	Bolton Wyresdale 'A'	22	13	2	7	66	52	14	41
5	Lymm 'A'	22	13	0	9	65	58	7	39
6	Mostonians 'A'	22	12	2	8	56	54	12	38
7	Tottington Utd Res	22	10	1	11	52	43	9	31
8	Oldham Hulmeians 'A'	22	6	5	11	54	77	-23	23
9	Old Blackburnians 'B'	22	6	3	13	39	50	-11	21
10	Old Mancunians 'B'	22	5	4	13	33	52	-19	19
11	Tyldesley Utd Res	22	4	1	17	31	73	-42	13
12	Radcliffe Town 'B'	22	2	3	17	27	85	-58	9

POS	4th Team - Division 7	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Horwich Victoria 'A'	20	18	0	2	70	25	45	54
2	Old Blackburnians 'C'	20	17	1	2	87	27	60	52
3	Hesketh Casuals 'B'	20	12	0	8	73	50	23	36
4	Little Lever SC 'A'	20	10	5	5	60	37	23	35
5	Thornleigh 'B'	20	8	3	9	52	59	-7	27
6	Howe Bridge Mills 'A'	20	7	2	11	43	57	-14	23
7	Horwich RMI 'A'	20	5	5	10	29	40	-11	20
8	Broughton Ams 'B'	20	5	5	10	31	52	-21	20
9	Bury GS 'B' *	20	7	1	12	47	70	-23	18
10	Oldham Hulmeians 'B'	20	5	2	13	40	65	-25	17
11	Bolton Wyresdale 'B'	20	3	2	15	32	82	-50	119
	* = points deducted