Saturday Senior Reserves entertained Standish Res at the Ainsdale Club this afternoon in what was a top of the table clash in the Mid Lancashire League Division 1.
Boosted by the return of some recently unavailable players S & A were looking to close the gap at the top as Standish sat five points ahead.
S & A started well creating a few half chances through Charles Lunt, Conor Bligh and Jack Osborne but overall Standish stood firm defending most of the threats that S & A produced. Cole Wood in the S & A goal made a tremendous save to keep Standish out on 18 mins as he saved well to his right.
With too many high balls going forward S & A were instructed to keep the ball wider using the channels. This is where the opening goal came from after Bligh nipped in to feed left back Robson Baldwin. Baldwins pinpointed a 30 yard pass for Lunt to run onto and the midfielder beat the defender to slot home from ten yards on 28 mins. The remainder of the half was a fifty fifty affair but with Olly Morton, Christy Devlin and Will White marshalling the midfield S & A held on to their lead.
Ht: 1-0
No changes to the team for the second half as S & A confidently played some good possession football with Devlin being involved in everything. The defence of Jack Sawyer, Tom Haworth, Jamie McCormack and Baldwin defused any attacks Standish could produce.
Gilson Amaral replaced the tireless Morton in midfield and within two minutes S & A were awarded a penalty after Lunt was upended in the box.
Striker Osborne cooly stroked the penalty home on 73 mins to give the hosts a two goal cushion. Standish then had a ten minute spell in the S & A half but the defence led by captain Haworth thwarted the visiting strikers.
In what was a competitive but fair game S & A ran out winners to move within two points of the leaders.
Ft: 2-0
Player of the match could have gone to a number of contenders but the manager awarded the trophy to Captain Tom Haworth whose leadership helped the team to the three points.
David Stroud
(Manager)