[themaclad]

A hardy 204 braved a soggy Lancaster to watch what was truly a crap game of football between Lancaster City and Ossett Albion on a pitch which sadly passed an early morning inspection. In fairness the game did not begin to badly but deteriorated after early promise. Albion were denied an early goal after a rampaging run by an Ossett forward get past everyone except City keeper Mike Hale. City created nothing with plenty of possession but Albion looked the more likely to score although they never again troubled Hale in the City goal. Half time came and went again with Albion looking the brighter. City finally mustered a shot at goal 12 minutes from the end it missed by yards. Four minutes later City scored Kilfin escaping the clutches of the Albion defence to put the ball through the keepers legs. And that was that it started raining got colder carp it was.

Lancaster City 1 Ossett Albion 0 Att 204

[themaclad]

Lancaster City kept alive their slim play off chances with a 3-0 home win over a spirited but limited Prescot Cables at a chilly Giant Axe. A sterile first half where virtually nothing happened apart from City taking the lead five minutes before half time. A mammoth long through by Bailey landed on skipper Marshall's head and found the back of the neyt beating Rupert Grint lookalike Tom Quinn in the Prescot goal.
Cables nearly levelled a minute later but the shot was delayed by a defensive tackle. That was the sum total of entertainment in a grim first half.
City's second goal just after the start of the second half killed the game, however not in keeping with the rest of the game it was a cracker. A quick free kick and Akrigg blasted home form 35 yards. From then on in it was a stroll, Cables offered little up front and Hale in the City game had an untroubled afternoon.
The third came from a rapid City breakaway following a tackle which the ball did well to survive the crunch between the two players, City escaped downn the right a canny pass to Winder saw him side foot the ball past Quinn to make it three.
Akrigg should have made it four near the end but wasted the chance. Easy peasy for the home side.



Lancaster City 3 Prescot Cables 0 Att 225

[themaclad]

Lancaster strolled to an easy 4-1 over play off non too hopefuls Mossley in what in the end was a very one sided contest. On a sunny afternoon at the Giant Axe the home faithful in a gate of 226, saw the visitors dominate the early stages, they had chances to score by the final pass which got worse as the game went on.
There was plenty of honest endeavour from both sides, not a lot of good football, plenty of shouting and lots of swearing. Passes went astray as both sides struggled to raise the game above the apathy level of the crowd. City took the lead when Bailey's shot was deflected by a Mossley defender past the hapless keeper. It was two shortly before half time when Taylor's tame close range effort was majestically fumbled by the visitors keeper.
The second half was probably worse than the first however City's third which wrapped up the points 15 minutes from time was not in keeping with the rest of the game. A fine team move split the defence apart and Poole ran on to end the move with a crisp finish. It was soon to be four as Mossley disintegrated when Winder scored from close range.
Only disappointment was a late penalty following handball by Marshall, Michael Fish scored(not the weather man)
Doubt whether the Axe will see me again but possible non league play off action may keep this thread going longer this season.


Lancaster City 4 Mossley 1 Att 226

[themaclad]

Starts again tomorrow with the F A Cup replay between Lancaster City and Marske United

[themaclad]

On cool September night Lancaster City duly progressed into the next round of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Northern League opponents Marske United.
The only goal came midway through the first half when Pearce's shot hit the post and rebounded into the net of the back of Dean in the United goal. Marske started the brighter passing the ball well on the lush Lancaster pitch although rarely troubling Donlon in the City goal. It took about 10 minutes for City to get into the game when they did they really should have gone ahead a fine passing move cut through the Marske rear guard however Pearce's shot failed to hit the target when extremely well placed.
The goal further pepped up City and young winger Whittington on loan from AFC Fylde began to terrorise the United defence but there was nobody in the area to finish off his impressive wing play. Hunter also hit the post for City again after some super passing football. Towards half time a few meaty challenges went in which caused an exchange of opinions between the players at half time in the tunnel.
Both sides had great chances to score at the start of the second half before the game started to become a midfield stalemate.
United made three substitutions bringing on veteran Brunskill to try and get the leveller. They were extremely unlucky 10 minutes from time when a forward got a clear run on goal and looked to be brought down in the area, red card and penalty, well, no, the referee waved played and almost immediately award a soft free kick at the other end of the pitch which Carlton blasted out of the ground.
In the closing minutes Marske full back Myers? was sent off for a second yellow card looked harsh.
City eased to victory and will now meet Padiham in the next round in East Lancashire.
Finally every credit to the Marske noisy support a long way to travel for a night match.

Lancaster City 1 Marske United 0 Att 187

[themaclad]

Given the International break ventured into Lasher land to watch AFC Blackpool take on Maltby Main in the first qualifying round of the FA Vase, on a distincly chilly afternoon for early September the visitors from the Rotherham area took an early lead after a scramble in the box the ball hit the bar before being cleared for a corner. I was waiting for the corner to be taken however was a bit surprised to see the players ambling back to the centre line for a restart.
Maltby looked a decent footballing side and were giving the home side a bit of a run around, however a misplaced defensive header by Main forced their keeper to palm the ball away onto the post and on to safety.
With about 15 minutes to go before half time Main were awarded a penalty after a comedy moment of non league goalkeeping, the home defence were cut apart by some astute passing from Main, with the forward going away from goal the home keeper decided to push the forward in the back for no apparent reason. Penalty given, penalty missed as the Main forward hit the outside of the left hand post.
The home side had a bit of decent possession before Main added a second just on half time again nice passing and the forward who missed the penalty side footed home from 20 yards a really nice goal.
The early stages of the second half were scrappy until AFC made three substitutions and started to get on top, they were desperately unlucky not to pull a goal back,. AFC were on top and looked like they would pull a goal back however they were dealt a cruel blow when Maltby's centre back got injured, his knee had locked and there was a lengthy delay, after that the home side momentum was lost and near the end a Maltby sub scored a third with the home defence awol.
Apologies for lack of names the NWCL site has not put the scorers up.
Finally football at this level is so different the home manager spent most of the first half wandering up and down the main stand swearing at his players and a block about 10 feet from defeated nature, with a strong breath going one way down the ground, his farts managed to float the other way, air biscuits from hell.

AFC Blackpool 0 Maltby Main 3 Att 50 ish

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https://youtu.be/IloIsatolPM

[themaclad]

Yousefi. Cusworth and Conway were the scorers and a might attendance of 44

[themaclad]

On a perfect night for football managerless Lancaster took on AFC Farsley at City's Giant Axe ground. Having gone out of the cup on Saturday to Droylsden, City's two international players Darren Peacock and Trevor Sinclair and the City board decided that in the interests of the club to part company.
Have to say it was a worthwhile experiment but you cannot play a Premiership slow passing game in the Evo Stick North especially when the grounds resemble the Somme later on in the season.
Gary Hunter and Danny Carlton took charge of the team and they were under constant pressure from the start from a Farsley side who were struggling at the wrong end of the table.
City were exposed three times down their left flank as the well built Farsley centre forward gave them a whole host of problems with his surging runs. Farsley had already had a goal disallowed and gone close twice before they took the lead in the 24 th minute with some skilful play by defender Harrison who dummied a City defender before firing home from 15 yards.
As expected City's confidence dropped following the goal and Farsley looked to added to their total. Ten minutes before half time a back pass didn't reach the Farsley keeper and young winger Whittington waltzed past the keeper and planted the ball in the unguarded net. On the stroke of half time it got even better when from a cross from the right Akrigg cooly chipped the ball over the keeper to give City a 2-1.
City were reduced to 10 in the early stages of the second half when Davis and a Farsley player went for a 50/50 ball, Davis got both ball and man, the Farsley man went down in a heap cue handbags between the players , arguments between the two benches and City home faithful giving the Farsley bench grief. Apparently it was a career ending tackle although it's possibly a moot point to say that playing for a club three from the bottom of the Evo Stick North your career has probably already ended. The injured player limped around and promptly played the remainder of the game.
Farsley dominated possession but apart from two chances didn't look like scoring, City a man light looked dangerous on the counter with Coulthurst having a shot well save, then with the Farsley keeper out of his area great defending denied Winder andn his follow up effort was then well saved by the keeper.
With five minutes to go City put on substitute Han who was told to run his tits off. As it turned out it was Farsley who were laughing theirs off when Hunter sliced past his own keeper deep in injury time to earn the visitors a point they deserved.

Lancaster City 2 AFC Farsley 2 Att 132

[themaclad]

On non league day it was only fair that I should venture out and watch a game of grass roots football, deciding where to go was fairly easy as I decided to get a new ground in, So Barrow in Furness it was to watch a North West Counties Division 2 game between Holker Old Boys and Irlam FC.
It cost me a whole £2 to enter the Rakesmoor Lane ground cannot beat OAP concession, a pint cost £2.80 and was as you say in the trade a decent brew, friendly people behind the bar as well. The ground is a bit spartan suspect watching a game on here in the middle of December could be a bit of an ordeal only disappointing thing today was the majestic lake district hills were slightly hidden under a thin covering of cloud.
As is the was with non league ground there is a bit of a slope on the ground, not as bad as some I've seen. The home side kicked uphill in the first half and were soon dominating against the Manchester visitors, ex Lancaster player Dave Swarbrick hit the post with a crunching shot and another ex Lancaster player Mike Rushden had a glorious chance getting into the box, he could have shot or passed to the unmarked Swarbrick did neither and the chance was gone. It was their last chance for a while as Irlam came into the game with their good passing style, they had several chances to score but found the Old Boys keeper in good form, when he was beaten in the first half he was saved by the crossbar. The only surprise about the game was that it was 0 all at half time.
Early stages of the second half were dominated by Irlam, they should have gone ahead when a diving header five yards out failed to hit the target, the visitors were getting plenty of joy down the Old Boys left flank but still could not find a way through the home defence. After the initial onslaught the Old Boys gradually began to get the better of exchanges and were unlucky twice not to go ahead, the No 6 turned the defender in the box and then curled a shot against the inside of the post it didnot go in minutes later Swarbrick escaped the attention of the defence and saw his goal bound shot cleared from the line by a defender.Against the run of play Irlam took the lead, an attack from the right led to a shot which was only parriewd by the keeper, Russell could not and did not miss.
Parity was restored six minutes later when Hubbold curled a left footed free kick into the top corner of the net, both sides went for the winner but neither side could make another breakthrough. Personal view was a fair result.
If you are tempted to venture to the Holker ground go when it is warmer and you have plenty of daylight to drive home, was a tad chilly yup there and the A590 isn't the best of roads to drive on in the dark.
Apologies for lack of player names only knew the ex Lancaster contingent.

Holker Old Boys 1 Irlam FC 1 Att 34

[St Charles Owl]

Cracking match report, better than I could do at any game I watch. Do you take notes during the game?