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Bad Night in Town for AFC

daveinnelli

This 1st round Liverpool Senior Cup tie was decided in the first six minutes, as AFC paid the ultimate price for starting the game poorly.


It took only 2 minutes for the home side to take the lead, as a cross from their right found Cobley drifting in unmarked at the back post to knock it in from close range. Things got even worse for the visitors when in the 6th minute, a corner was delivered from Runcorn's right and Tom Ruffer was allowed to rise unmarked to head home another for Town. AFC looked stunned and continuously gave away cheap free-kicks in dangerous areas, with Runcorn looking increasingly threatening with each one.


As The Reds finally began to settle down, they were handed a potential lifeline. Ex AFC keeper, Danny Hamlett came to collect a through ball but went out of his area to do so. The assistant referee flagged and a red card was shown. With no substitute keeper on their bench, Runcorn put Cobley in goal. For the remainder of the half however, AFC failed to test the stand-in keeper, with most crosses being over hit and easy for him to collect and the couple of shots actually taken, didn't have the required quality. So Runcorn went into the break two goals to the good but a man down.


AFC did start the 2nd half with more determination than we had seen in the first, but it wasn't long before the game became a case of, let AFC have the ball, pack the defence and let them try to break us down, and to be honest Runcorn did it very well, with excellent performances, particularly from their central defenders. The Reds were limited to long range efforts that went high or wide of the target, as the stand-in keeper was still to be tested.


As we approached the end of the 90 minutes, AFC finally started to show some threat as they peppered the home side's penalty area. Lancaster had the ball in the net but the flag went up for offside. Matty Brown had a point blank header well held by the keeper, and the keeper saved well with his feet as a shot came through a host of bodies. Numbers were evened up when Mahafy was sinbinned in the last minute and the board went up, indicating 8 minutes of injury time. The Reds continued to press and in the 4th minute of added time, Ben Lightfoot rose well to reduce the arrears.


Despite frantic efforts in the remaining minutes, it was a case of too little too late for AFC, as they exited the Senior Cup. It would be easy to point to the number of changes made in order to give lads deserved minutes, or the pitch, or anything else, but that wouldn't excuse the performance on the night. It also wouldn't be fair on the hosts, whose battling performance fully deserved their place in the next round.


The Non-League Reds face a tough test this Saturday when they travel to West Didsbury & Chorlton in the League. Kick-off is 3pm and as ever, all support would be greatly appreciated.


Final Score - Runcorn Town 2 v 1 AFC Liverpool

Team - 1. McGovern 2. Lightfoot 3. Giblin 4. Lancaster 5. Brown (c)

6. Murphy 7. Cummins 8. Williams 9. Taylor 10. Skillen 11. Rodriguez

Subs Used - Beckett, Mahafy, Moorcroft, Bavelock


(Pics courtesy of Billy Stirrup)






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