West Lancashire Premier Division
Coppull United FC welcomed Burscough Richmond to Blainscough Park hoping to get their season kick started however their opponents came into the game with a 100% record
Coppull started with Joe Leather in goal, a back 4 of Mikey Aspin, Conor Whitaker, Dave Parker and Ben Morris moving across to left back. In midfield it was Jay Briody, Adam Pitstock joined by Martin Kershaw, with Jimmy Hamer and Jimmy McIver both supporting Jack Gooden up front. The substitutes bench included Nat Lindley, Nathan Bibby, Alessio Degrassi, Cam Murphy and Jack Ramshaw.
Burscough started well knocking the ball around however Coppull were dealing with the offensive threat really well and number 1 Joe Leather was hardly troubled. A few speculative shots from distance flew over the Coppull bar but it was Coppull who had the best chance of the first half when a cross from Mikey Aspin was met by skipper Dave Parker, whose looping header was tipped over the bar by the Burscough number 1. Half time and the scores were level 0-0.
The second half began and no sooner had it started than Jimmy Hamer rolled his ankle and had to be replaced by Alessio Degrassi. Shortly after this the Coppull United midfield who had hassled and harried the their Burscough counterparts and the full back was allowed time and space to deliver a quality cross into the box which was met with a great header by the Burscough forward, Lorde. 0-1 Burscough. There was very little time for Coppull to re-group before a wonder strike from the Burscough winger in the next attack found the top corner and Burscough had doubled their lead. Alessio had a great chance to reduce the arrears when a ball broke to him on the edge of the box with the keeper stranded off his line and unfortunately, he over-hit his shot and cleared the crossbar.
A Burscough corner led to a very late tackle on Coppull’s goalkeeper Joe Leather leaving him with a dead leg and struggling to move. The referee must have missed the incident as he had previously been very card happy up to this point and the late timing of the tackle on Coppull’s number 1 certainly warranted a yellow. Coppull’s misery was compounded moments later when a shot from Lorde on the edge of the box found the corner of the goal, beating the injured Leather. With that Leather had to be withdrawn and young centre half Cam Murphy went between the posts for the remainder of the game. Ramshaw, Bibby and Lindley were all introduced to see if they could impact the game but unfortunately for Coppull the damage was done and a second half capitulation had resulted in a 3 nil defeat.
Saturday see’s the first team away to CMB FC in a bit to finally kick start the season.