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Bootle reserves go down at Ashton Athletic

Bootle reserves go down at Ashton Athletic

neil pybis16 Oct 2012 - 16:07
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Bucks run out of steam on the road

After a first half that showed so much promise, the Bucks reserves slumped to a dismal 4-1 defeat to a youthful and energetic Ashton Athletic side, dropping them one place to fifth in the league.

To use the old cliche, this was, "a game of 2 half's," one in which Bootle dominated and would have been no surprise to all those watching if they would have gone in at least 3 goals to the good at half time, some cracker goalkeeping and poor missed opportunities in front of goal, meant that the score was 1-1 at half time.

Ashton took the lead early on through a headed goal from a corner, due to some slack marking at the near post allowing a free header at goal that rocketed into the net like a bullet, indeed Bootle where very poor inviting numerous unchallenged headers at goal in the first half, still Bootle rallied quickly to equalized. They played some fantastic passing football and should have capitalized on the many chances that they created in the first half, still with the score 1-1 there was plenty to play for in the second half.

The second half seen Ashton come out of the blocks the quickest, in-fact at times it was like the tortoise (Bootle) and the hare (Ashton), in this case the hare did not stop for a snooze but battled on to take firstly and 2-1 lead and then a 3-1 lead,with some slick passing and movement that Bootle had no answer to, that left them chasing shadows at times.
Bootle tried to bolster up the team by bringing on 3 substitutes in a short space of time, only to have lady luck abandon them completely as they lost a player to injury reducing them to 10 men this was further compounded when a Bucks player was shown a second yellow card and ultimately a red card for dissent, further reducing them to 9 men, and shortly later followed the 4th goal for Ashton, in one of the waves of attacks that were streaming down on the Bootle defence that at the time they had no answer to.

Strangely enough this all seemed to galvanise the Bootle team and they played some of their best football of the second half in which with some better finishing and a little more luck could have made the score a little more respectable.

we as supporters always find the realities of watching a football match fascinating, how the game can turn on a decision, how the heads of players fall when those decisions are given against them, how a different team can come out in the second half, when its the same players from the first, how a team plays like Brazil one week and like a bunch of strangers they next, it all makes the game go around,and makes the game the exciting thing that we live for every week - penny for your thoughts folks.

Discipline plays a large part of the game, and perhaps more in this day and age where referees will book you more for what you say than what you do, some of the decisions from the referee left a lot of supporters totally perplexed, so much so the home supporters were laughing at some of the decisions, that were going in their favour, some of the Ashton challengers that were not given as fouls, leading to a lot of frustration with the Bootle team, but this is no excuse to fly of the handle, at 10 men we needed all hands to the pumps, some of the ill discipline out on the field led to the players not only letting themselves down but ultimately the team.

The next game against AFC Fylde, at home, will determine the men from the boys, the Fylde team on on a roller coaster at the moment, with the influx of money from their, not one, but 2 "millioners," means they have spent a lot of money over the summer buying some big stars and in non league terms they are on big wages, this has relegated a lot of the old first teamers on to the bench, and leading to them playing in the reserve team, giving them a very strong reserve squad.
At the moment, they are unbeaten with 10 points from 4 games and scoring 20 goals in that time whilst only conceding 3, they will present a stern challenge to a Bootle side.
Perhaps Bootle can draw some inspiration from the fact that the 20 goals Fylde have scored only 5 of them have been away from home with the other 15 scored at home.

The lads need all the support that so come on folks try to get to the Delta stadium this thursday and roar the lads on.

results and tables at http://full-time.thefa.com/Index.do?divisionseason=525052396&league=1848526

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