The new football season has started. Here’s the match reports from the first couple of games.
Weds 17th Aug
Bolton Wyresdale 2-2 Prestwich
Prestwich started their league campaign full of optimism for the new season on Weds 17th with an away fixture against a talented young Bolton Wyresdale outfit.
The Prestwich outfit finished 4th last season and a league restructure saw the top three and strangely the 5th placed sides all promoted, as league rules only allow clubs with a 2nd team into the premier division. So having bolstered the squad with some quality arrivals anticipation of a successful season was very high going into the game.
It all seemed to be going to plan when the lads sailed into 2-0 lead within 10 minutes.
First Mike Neary scored in the 2nd minute with a tremendous 25 yard free kick, bending the ball round the wall and leaving the keeper completely stranded.
That was soon followed on 8 mins by a terrific long range strike by Aldair Victorano cutting in from the left to rifle into the top corner.
The goal was followed by a scrappy period with the Prestwich boys becoming uncharacteristically involved in petulant squabbles with the opposition, the ref and each other. Despite the somewhat erratic performance by the ref there was little excuse for their poor discipline and they were made to pay when Wyresdale took advantage to claw their way back into the game on 15 mins with a similarly well taken long range effort.
The lads settled down to dominate the rest of the half and the early exchanges of the second without being able to add to their tally and put the game to bed. As the half wore on Bolton grew into the game and again a lack of football disciple this time crept into Prestwich’s game, with the ball being given away cheaply and players drifting out of position.
With a couple of minutes left they were made to pay when Bolton got a scrappy equaliser to mar what should really have been a successful start to the campaign.
Sat 20th Aug
Prestwich 2–1 Ashtonians
A tense exciting game saw Dave Thompson come of the bench with just 8 minutes left to grab an injury time winner with a beautifully struck 20 yard free kick to bring just reward for what had been an excellent all round performance let down only by some wayward finishing and what seemed to be an incredibly charmed Ashtonians goal.
With new boys Liam Burke, Pete Gallagher and Rick Walker all impressing Prestwich started the game well playing some beautiful football on the excellent Hopwood playing surface.
The ball was constantly shifting from player to player using the full pitch in spectacular fashion and it seemed a matter of time before Prestwich took the lead with Walker especially looking like he could score at any time.
Then on 16 mins disaster struck when on a rare attack Ashtonians took the lead with what was either a brilliant goal or just a fortuitous strike when an early hit speculative shot from 30 yards was caught by the shifting wind and instead of sailing over as one expected the ball dipped in the last second to just go under the bar giving keeper Mike Hudson no chance.
With something to hold on to Ashtonians set their stall out to defend deep and counter when they could, and they went about the game plan with great discipline and organisation.
Such was Prestwich’s dominance of the ball though one still felt that a home win would still be the most likely outcome. A sizzling 30 yard strike by Walker was agonisingly finger tipped over the bar by the keeper, Sean Haslam came close on numerous occasions and on 35 mins Walker did incredibly well to jink his way round several defenders in a tight space to the left of the box before smashing a low shot across goal which saw the ball cannon off the far post and back across the goal line before it was cleared, a centimetre the other way it would have gone in off the post.
The game continued in the same vain deep into the 2nd half with Prestwich dominating but unable to make that final touch or just not quite getting the bounce in the box.
Finally Ashtonians resolve cracked when Gallaher played a sumptuous ball into the right channel for Haslam who got the better of the left back to square the ball to Mike Neary who finished emphatically.
Newly promoted Ashtonians dug in deeper desperate to salvage what would still have been a very hard earned point from the game as Prestwich swarmed over them. It was to their great credit that despite the clock running down at no point did Prestwich stop playing their neat passing game, with centre backs Richard Steadman and Paul Taylor having won the ball feeding it through the team to wingers Neary and Steve Murty or overlapping fullbacks, Burke and Gallaher.
With the sends ticking away Walker cracked another shot against an upright, Aldair Victorano and Haslam went close as the ball fizzed across the box.
Just when it looked like it wasn’t going to happen Thompson popped up with his gem in the 93rd minute prompting the celebrations.
