Train (Manchester-Daisy Hill): £4-20
i-Paper: 40p
Entrance: £5
Programme: £1
Tea: £1
Total: £11-60
My first competitive game of the 2014/15 season, and I headed off to Daisy Hill, which is just west of Atherton, and has a Bolton postcode. Like Wigan this is off my Lancs A-Z, so this is another one which lies in the ‘unclassified’ area between Manchester and Liverpool! The train across to Manchester was smooth, but when I reached Piccadilly, I discovered that my connecting train to Salford Crescent had been cancelled. A long wait beckoned until I realised I could easily walk to Victoria to catch the service I needed. It seems absurd that so many services go from different stations in the centre of Manchester – let’s hope that the Ordsall Chord Manchester loop materialises soon to solve this problem.
I managed to get lost looking for the entrance to the ground, which is actually off a barely noticeable track from St James Street. When I reached it, I wasn’t disappointed. The main feature of the ground was what looked like an old scout hut (corrugated iron walls and a dark wooden roof), with several signs of the club’s name. This included a rather impressive sign above the entrance archway reading ‘Members of the First North Western Trains League Division 2’, no doubt a relic of a past era.
After parting with £5 entrance and £1 for a programme, I had a wander into the club-house for a cup of tea. This was indeed as impressive as it looked from the outside. This had the feel of a community dance hall with a long room flanked by tables, with a kids’ pool table near the door, and a bar at the far end. This was by far the best club house I’ve been in all season, and was made all the better by a decent cup of tea in a china mug. Outside there were three rows of wooden seats, which reminded me of the old seats at the Walks in King’s Lynn before the stand was refurbished.
For kick-off, I took up my place just to the left of the half-way line, in the half being attacked by the away side Litherland. The side from Liverpool were new boys to this league so I expected this to be an interesting match-up today. Litherland is an area of North Liverpool which you pass on the way to Crosby (home of Marine FC), and I had cycled through it on many occasions when on the road to Burscough and Formby (back in my student days). Needless to say, their promotion had added another ground to my list of NW clubs!
Litherland started with speed, aggression and great enthusiasm – I’ve come to expect nothing less from Merseyside teams. Early on, their number 11 striker tangled with the home keeper, whilst number 9 scuffed wide on 8 minutes. In midfield, they looked faster to the ball than the North Western League veterans, and had another chance when the busy 7 had a left-foot shot outside the area which flew wide. They perhaps should have had a penalty when a fierce shot was charged down by the home number 7, with an almost definite use of his hands to do so. Almost as soon as that attack broke down, the home keeper (who looked like Balotelli) hoofed it the other end of the pitch, and Jake Foster hit a well-placed shot first time to make it 1-0. This was against the run of play, and you had to feel for the Merseyside team. They responded instantly, with some direct attacking resulting in a superb volley from their number 2, which was tipped around the post by the home keeper. As the Scouser next to me said, he was ‘down like a whippet’. It then got even worse for Litherland, as they conceded a penalty (it wasn’t clear if it was a hand-ball or a foul), and Daisy Hill’s Andrew Buckley slotted to the keeper’s right. 2-0 at half-time, and this was a rather unfair score-line to be honest.
The heavens opened at the break, so I took cover in front of the club-house, and had a flick through the programme (disappointingly thin on detail unfortunately). The torrent continued into the second half, and some players cowered tentatively in the entrance to the changing rooms before gritting their teeth and jogging out. The second half was an evenly matched affair, with chances spread around between the sides. Litherland’s 11 slid a decent opportunity wide on 55 minutes, before Daisy Hill’s 9 was put clean through, only to lose the ball with a poor first touch. The away side rattled the cross-bar with a free-kick from their number 2, and had a penalty on 75 minutes to reduce the deficit.
It clearly wasn’t their day, as their number 10’s spot-kick was well-saved by Balotelli to his right. This was their last realistic chance of salvaging anything from today’s game, and the final nail was put in their coffin when their number 5 was taken off with a shoulder injury towards the end. This broke up the play, and seemed to dent the Merseyside team’s confidence for the rest of the game. Overall, this had been a fairly average affair, often broken up by free kicks, fouls and poor passing, and unfortunately the team with the most enthusiasm and drive had come away with nothing. There were 21 in attendance at this one, which has to be a new low for a game I’ve been to. I’ll hopefully be across to Litherland’s ground soon, but in the meantime this is another one down in this ‘unclassified’ region of Lancashire.
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