We now enter our return fixtures and today we saw the boys play Reddish Phoenix for the second time. Last time our B team finished comfortable 5-1 winners but that wasn’t to be repeated today.

It would be easy to say that we started slowly but in fairness Reddish battled hard, gave us no space and played some nice passing football. That said, it was a surprise when they went ahead through an unfortunate and unusual error. However, and in typical style, the boys battled back to draw level at half time with a great finish from Louis and then in the second half they extended the lead their lead through two well taken goals from Ethan and Joel.

3-1 up with seven minutes to go and we thought we’d see the game out comfortably but Reddish had other ideas and when they pulled a goal back we had an anxious last few minutes but managed to finish the game 3-2 winners.

Our A team drew 1-1 last time and we felt we had a point to prove this week and make amends for the late goal we conceded that day. First half we played some really nice football and looked solid throughout the team but perhaps lacked a little composure in front of goal. Reddish’s only meaningful attack of the first half brought a fantastic save from Veitchy to keep the score at 0-0.

Second half we pushed and pushed and finally got our rewards when Max got on the end of a ball to put us 1-0 ahead. We had several opportunities to seal the game with Max and Elliott getting the best chances but their keeper was excellent today. As always, if you don’t take your chances you get punished and once again we squandered our lead with just over a minute to go and with no time to reply the game ended 1-1.

Both teams played well today and worked hard but we need to concentrate for the entire 40 minutes and once we get in front we need to stay in front.

Next week sees us take on Dukinfield Youth in the Primary Cup semi final. We have an early 9.15 kick off so we don’t want any sore heads from the Xmas party the night before please...and that’s just the management!!!