Old Boltonians 1 Chaddertonians 0

The Old Boltonians came into this first round match of the LAL cup on a high from the exploits of the weekend and were in confident mood, despite a less than favourable draw against the cup holders – Chaddertonians. Manager, Simon Shields, decided to rotate some of the team and used the new found depth in the squad, but the starting XI was a strong team capable of winning the game.

The game started at a frantic pace with Old Boltonians seeing little of the ball in the early stages. It would be fair to say that Chaddertonians had much the better of the early exchanges and the Old Boltonians were chasing shadows to some extent. There may have been a degree of complacency from the Old Boltonians following the ease of the weekend victory, but it was more likely that they had underestimated Chaddertonians who are a competent team. Chaddertonians operating with a four man forward line bombarded the Old Boltonians goal with wave after wave attack, which the defence tried admirably to rebuff, but the ball retention following reclamation was poor. Chaddertonians had a number of efforts on goal and goalkeeper, Dave Hopkins, can be proud of his efforts in the first half, as he was equal to every attempt made to breach the deadlock. Half-time came and the Old Boltonians had been second best.

The second half kicked off with the Old Boltonians recognising that an improvement in quality was required and almost immediately, this was the result. A neat passing move that involved five or six of the Old Boltonians team resulted in a Robert Taylor effort on goal that was not far off target. It would be wrong to say that the Old Boltonians dominated the second half, but it was a much more even affair, with Chaddertonians creating no chances worthy of note.

The game looked to be drifting towards the lottery of penalties, as the darkness descended upon Chapeltown. There was a matter of seven minutes left when the Roy of the Rovers moment of the game occurred. Rick McCllelan showed good work and persistence down the right wing before delivering a ball into the box towards Robert Taylor. He managed to get a flick on that looped over the last defender into the path of new boy, Josh Melling. The 18-year old struck a left foot volley carefully between the legs of the Chaddertonians goalkeeper to score his first goal for the Old Boltonians. And what a time to get it.

The Old Boltonians managed to see out the remaining minutes of the game to record a pleasing victory and clean sheet and progress to the next round of the cup.