Midweek Victory for AFC

The Non-League Reds picked up another 3 points, as they came up against Longridge Town for the first time this season.

Although it turned out to be a comfortable victory, mainly due to events in the 2nd half, the visitors started very brightly and Ben Barnes had to make a straightforward save on 6 minutes, from a Luke Smith effort.

In the 20th minute Anderton saw his shot come crashing out off the post, as Longridge continued to press. Caleb Jones had AFC's first effort of note on 25 minutes, when his 25 yard strike went narrowly wide.

This gave AFC the confidence to push forward more and they were rewarded on 29 minutes, when following a fine move from back to front, Dan Mahaffy played a great through ball to Caleb Jones and his cross landed at Elliot Taylor's feet, for the striker to fire home his 36th of the season and give the home side the lead.

Elliot fires in the opening goal

Just 5 minutes later and The Non-League Reds had doubled their lead. It was the same combination of Mahaffy feeding the ball to Caleb Jones. He beat his man before crossing to the near post, where Adam Moorcroft skilfully steered the ball home with the inside of his right foot.

Adam gets the 2nd at the near post

The game continued to flow from one end to the other but the next good chance didn't happen until the stroke of half-time, when Crowe in the visitors goal, made a fine save from a Caleb Jones effort. So, at the break it had been quite an even contest but it was AFC who went in with a two goal advantage.

The visitors cause was made all the more difficult just after the hour mark, when Mahaffy put Taylor through and the Longridge skipper brought him down, with the referee having no choice but to show him a red card. The keeper saved well from the resulting Caleb Jones free-kick and Moorcroft blazed the rebound wide.

The game was over as a contest 5 minutes later, when the unfortunate Paul Turner landed awkwardly and sustained a nasty hand injury. With the visitors already having used their available substitutions, it meant they were reduced to 9 men.

AFC could and perhaps should have tried to take advantage by pushing hard for more goals, however, they just managed the game out well, with longs spells of possession. That said, Caleb Jones dinked an effort wide when he was through on the keeper and Elliot Taylor crashed an effort that flew back off the inside of the post.

Overall, a comfortable win for AFC and everyone sends their best wishes to the Longridge striker Paul Turner.

This coming Saturday, Burscough are the visitors to the Berry Street Garage Stadium. Kick-off is 3pm and all support would be greatly appreciated.

FINAL SCORE - AFC Liverpool 2 v 0 Longridge Town

LINE-UP - 1. Barnes 2. Smalley 3. Fisher-Jones 4. Moorcroft (c) 5. Brown 6. Hinnigan

7. C. Jones 8. Mahaffy 9. Taylor 10. Starkey 11. Rooney

Subs used - Beckett, Wright-Ocana, Jamieson, Gerrard