Eagley took advantage of two home errors early in each half to take a 2-0 lead before Charnock pulled a goal back in the closing minutes
Charnock Richard 1 Eagley 2
Saturday 30th January 2010, West Lancs Premier Division.
CHARNOCK RICHARD 1
EAGLEY 2
Scorer : Hayton.
TEAM: Kevin Baldwin, Phil Jackson, Jimmy King, Mark Kerr (Stewart Howson 46), Liam Hayton, Matt Mawdesley (Alex Porter 58), David Prout, Alex Randell (Andy Roberts 74), Chris Robinson, John Sanderson, Carl Grimshaw. Sub: (Not Used) Jordan McFayden.
Although the frozen pitch had been exposed to the sun all morning it was still relatively hard and it took until five minutes before the scheduled kick off time before the referee finally gave the go ahead. In hindsight Charnock might have preferred the game to be postponed as they slumped to their third home defeat of the season. They failed to adapt to the pitch conditions in the opening stages of the game and two mistakes in the early stages of both halves were ruthlessly exploited by Eagley to give them a two goal lead. Charnock never really got their game together and it was only in the closing stages that they pulled a goal back but they still did not do enough to salvage even one point.
Unfortunately Charnock’s hopes of fielding the same team that performed so well in the win at Garstang the previous week were dashed when Andy Battersby reported that he was feeling soreness in the thigh that he injured at the beginning of the season so Matt Mawdesley started on the right with Alex Randell moving into central midfield. Skipper Andy Roberts was on the bench having finally recovered from the knee injury he suffered at Poulton Town back in November.
Charnock started very tentatively and it was the visitors who made all the early running. There was plenty of pace in the Eagley attack and the home defence struggled to cope. Charnock conceded an early goal to further erode their confidence, Mawdesley’s attempted to pass back to Jackson but merely sent Porter clear who competently beat the advancing Baldwin to give the visitors an early lead. Eagley continued to look the team most likely to score and they almost succeeded when Hayton was harshly adjudged to have fouled on the edge of the area and a bullet header from the resulting free kick was just past the post.
Charnock carried little threat to the Eagley goal in the first 25 minutes. They struggled to acclimatise to the conditions and too many passes went astray, however, as the half progressed the pitch seemed to soften up and Charnock at last put the visiting defence under some pressure. The keeper had to perform acrobatically to palm out a Sanderson shot and then the same player turned a shot just past the post when he was fed just on the six yard box. Matt Mawdesley had recovered well from his earlier error and he had some good runs down the right wing and it was disappointing that his centres failed to find a home forward. One centre that was helped on saw Robinson head wide at the back post. Charnock had definitely dominated the final 20 minutes of the half and it was disappointing that they had failed to at least equalise.
Although Mark Kerr came out for the second half,he was replaced by Stewart Howson before the half kicked off. Charnock started on the front foot but they failed to really produce the standard of football seen in recent games. Eagley continued to look dangerous on the break but Charnock gave themselves a mountain to climb if they were to get any reward out of the game when another error gifted Eagley another goal. Jimmy King hesitated on the edge of the penalty area looking for a telling pass to a colleague, he was quickly closed down and rolled the ball back to Baldwin who scuffed his clearance straight to a Eagley forward. Kevin managed to block the resulting shot but the ball ran free to be knocked into the empty net by Holmes. Alex Porter came on to replace Mawdesley and Charnock stepped up their game but despite several moments of desperate defending in the visitor’s penalty area they failed to produce many goal chances. Sanderson could only mis-hit his shot into the hands of the keeper after he had been played in from a Grimshaw free kick on the edge of the area. Then Carl Grimshaw made room for a powerful shot that the keeper did well to beat out. Eagley always carried the threat of adding to their lead as the Villagers pushed forward and they finally pulled a goal back when a right wing corner was helped on across the Eagley goal area and LIAM HAYTON turned the ball home from close range after 38 minutes. There was now a real chance of at least rescuing a point from the game but still Charnock failed to lay siege to the Eagley goal. There was one last chance to equalise when another right wing corner caused confusion in the visitor’s goalmouth but when the ball was finally heading for the top corner the keeper rose to pluck the ball cleanly out of the air. Eagley had come full of plenty of running, keen to exploit their nimble forwards and they had adapted well to the unusual conditions but after everything else is said they had been gifted their two best chances albeit they were skilful enough to convert them into goals.
Charnock, perhaps resting on their laurels after the excellent win the previous week, never really performed to the standard that can be expected from this squad. There were too many passes going astray and although enough chances were created to have won the game the continuing failure to show a ruthless streak in front of goal means that their challenge to hold onto the league championship took a major knock. With Wren Rovers surprisingly losing at home to AFC Darwen and Garstang and Lostock St Gerards only sharing the points dark horses Fulwood Amateurs capitalised to move up to the top of the table.
