Hesketh Casuals ‘A’ 3 Old Bolts ‘A’ 3
No one is a fan of an away fixture to Southport. Tell that to Beardall, who in his desperation to catch up and locate the 3rd team convoy picked up a £60 fine for mobile phone use by the Police. Still, this gives an insight in to the excellent levels of communication installed within the team and also an indicator in to the local Police’s inability to prevent burglaries given their apparent priorities!
Anyway, there was a match to play and Old Bolts set about their task in a bright manner. Witter and Grimes bossed the midfield and the lively Kemp was always a menacing outlet on the right flank. Rose, replacing like for like, installed himself upfront in the absence of Hughes (not sure who will be the most upset with that comment!) and linked well with his midfield.
Hesketh started to grow in to the game and proved dangerous going down their left flank and unfortunately took the lead. Despite the disappointment, Old Bolts continued to press forward and always felt that the creaking Hesketh defence would enable scoring opportunities. This faith was rewarded when the skill and pace of Kemp was brought to a halt in the box resulting in a penalty. The responsibility fell to Ellis who picked his spot and sent the keeper the wrong way – unfortunately, the spot picked was wide of the left post. Strictly speaking the penalty should have been retaken as he managed to kick the ball twice in one attempt. However, Hesketh’s laughter was soon over as Grimes played a through ball to Ellis, who took his customary two attempts to beat the keeper and score. 1-1 and everything to play for.
Unfortunately, Hesketh also revived themselves and Neasham was forced to make a couple of outstanding saves but not even his heroics could prevent Hesketh from retaking the lead, making it 2 –1 at half time. At this point, Ishaque took time out from telling us how much younger their left winger was (I believe he was 17), to give a stirring team talk and focus the team on getting back in to the game.
The 2nd half saw Old Bolts push forward in numbers but on occasion this left the back four vulnerable to the Hesketh counter attack. The post kept Old Bolts in the game a couple of times but the bravery of the 3rd team was rewarded when Grimes charged in to the box to connect with a right wing cross and equalise for the second time.
There was belief that Old Bolts could go on and win the game but sadly the Hesketh forward, who had been well shackled by the excellent Timmis and Davids, contrived to put a cross in which looped over the desperately unfortunate Neasham.
Character continued to flow within the Old Bolts team and Ellis was cynically chopped down when clean through. Grimes stepped up to dispatch the resulting free-kick in to the top corner. It was a superb strike and capped a man of the match performance from the young Scholes impersonator who was the highlight of a great battling team effort by Old Bolts A team.