Caleb's Double Not Enough For Reds

Despite 2 goals from North West Counties Premier League Player of The Year Caleb Jones, including a trademark free-kick, The Non-League Reds fell to an opening day defeat at their new home ground.

Things looked promising in the opening exchanges, as the home side created a couple of chances with Liam Paton forcing saves from the visiting keeper. With 13 minutes on the clock, another good AFC move resulted in Caleb Jones winning a free-kick 25 yards from goal. Caleb got up, took it and rifled the ball home to give his side the perfect start.

Caleb scores another free kick

Irlam responded well as both sides had decent spells of possession. Then on 25 minutes an Irlam cross was only cleared to the edge of the box where Boyd struck a left-foot volley into the net, to level the scores. From this point on, it was the visitors who had the upper hand for the remainder of the half. However, despite their dominance there wasn't many chances at either end of the pitch and the scores remained level at the break.

It was the visitors who started the 2nd half much the better of the two sides and it only took five minutes for them to take the lead. A good move by Irlam cut through the AFC defence and Mitchell had the easy task of knocking the ball home. Things got worse for AFC in the 57th minute when a Daniels header bounced back out off the bar and Mitchell was there again to head the rebound in. The home side had been caught cold at the start of the half and needed a big response to try and turn things around.

Substitutions were made and Cam Rooney, who was one of them, made an instant impact as he played a good pass to Caleb Jones running just inside the box. Caleb struck the ball low into the corner of the net to get AFC back in the game.

Caleb fires home his 2nd goal

Joel Skillen who had also come on as a substitute, was causing the opposition lots of problems and after a fine run, he tried to direct the ball home with the outside of his right foot but was inches wide of the post. Despite some good pressure and a few half chances, the home side couldn't find another goal that would have salvaged a point.

The Non-League Reds move on to midweek action on Tuesday evening, when we make the trip to a strong Burscough side. Kick-off is 7:45 and hopefully we'll see you there.

FINAL SCORE - AFC Liverpool 2 v 3 Irlam

LINE UP - 1. Parkinson 2. Jamieson 3. Giblin 4. Moorcroft (c) 5. Brown 6. Fisher-Jones 7. Jones 8. Mahaffy 9. Taylor 10. Lancaster 11. Paton

Subs Used - Rooney, Skillen, Blankendal

Attendance - 179

Pics courtesy of Dave Williams @ www.afcliverpool.smugmug.com

and Paul Moran.