ASHTON ATHLETIC 2-1 BOOTLE

After Saturdays disappointing defeat at Silsden the Yellows looked to stay in touch with the early pace setters entertaining Bootle at Brocstedes. New signing Paul Atherton was added to the squad along with Jack Hurst from the u18’s. 19 year old Chris Webster made his full first team debut in cm and the Returning Ryan Small partnered Mike Downing up front.

The game couldn’t have got off to a worse start, the Yellows finding themselves 0-1 down after only 3 minutes. A long ball played into the back post flicked off a Bootle head but the linesman flagged for a corner. As the ball was swung in towards the front post James McShane peeled away from his marker to flick the ball into the far corner of the net. This only seemed to ignite the Yellows and felt unlucky not to be level minutes later. A great run down the right by Danny Regan saw him feed the ball inside to Mike Downing, Downing hit a low shot which Bootle keeper Porter palmed into the path of Ry Small who made no mistake from 6 yards. The celebration was short lived though as the linesman had his flagged raised for off side. On 14 minutes the scores were level, Aaron Cringle took a throw in on the right and with his back to goal Mike Downing flicked the ball over Porter who was only a yard off his line into the roof of the net. The pressure was now constant on the Bootle defence with Regan and Midgeley causing all sorts of problems on the wings. The pressure paid off in the 25th minute when Downing scored his 3rd goal in 2 games, again good build up found Downing 20 yards out. With the defenders backing off he shot at goal only for an out stretched Bootle leg to deceive Porter and divert the ball into the net. Bootle looked dangerous on the counter but the Ashton defence were in no mood to gift any more goals.

HT 2-1

Bootle came out the second half with much more desire probably due to a half time rollicking. Silly free kicks given away by the Yellows resulted in long punts into the Ashton box but Foulds and his defence were in no mood to let the game slip away. Bootle’s best chance of the game came when a run down the left saw the winger squeeze into the box and try to lob Foulds but a fine tip over the bar kept the lead intact. Ashton introduced Atherton and his energy and experience saw him pull the ball back into the path of left back Adam Howard. 8 yards from goal and on his weaker right foot Howard just pulled his shot wide of the post. With 10 minutes to go Bootle were reduced to 10 men when Peterson saw red for a nasty two footed challenge, the referee giving no hesitation showing the card. Bootle continued to press but didn’t really test Foulds and the Yellows earned a valuable 3 points to move up to 5th in the league.