West Lancashire Premier Division
Coppull United FC welcomed Vickerstown to Blainscough Park hoping to kick start their season however their opponents had won both their opening matched so it was always going to be a tough game.
Coppull started with Joe Leather in goal, a back 4 of Conor Whitaker, Dave Parker, Ben Morris and new signing from Slyne, Mike Aspin. In midfield it was Jay Briody, Adam Pitstock and Jimmy Hamer centrally, with Jack Gooden and Jimmy McIver both supporting Chris Holt up front. The substitutes bench included Nat Lindley, Nathan Bibby and Jack Ramshaw.
The game started at a frantic pace with both teams trying to impose themselves on their opposition. Coppull were their own worst enemy however when another individual error gifted Vickerstown the lead. With the ball in the opposition half, a mis-placed pass from Holt resulted in a Vickerstown midfielder playing through MacDonald up top who took the ball round the stranded Leather in goal and finished expertly to give the away side a 1 nil lead. Vickerstown doubled their lead shortly after when yet another long ball from Vickerstown caught the Coppull defence napping and Macdonald tricked his way past Morris before deftly finishing past Leather to make it 2 nil. Just before half time Coppull reduced the arrears when Gooden got to the byline and crossed for Holt at the back post who tapped home. Half time and it was Coppull trailing the visitors 2 1.
At the start of the second half Coppull once again let themselves down by gifting their opposition yet another goal. A long ball over the top was met by the ever-present MacDonald and he held it up before laying it for the on rushing midfielder whose shot was palmed away by Leather right into the path of the Vickerstown wide man who made no mistake for 3 -1. Bibby and Ramshaw were introduced from the bench to try and improve Coppull’s fortunes with McIver and Whitaker making way. 3-1 soon became 4-1 as Vickerstown attacked down their left hand side and a centre found the right winger whose shot was palmed into the net by Leather. Coppull’s horrific day continued went a corner wasn’t cleared and the Vickerstown midfielder smashed home from 6 yards to make it a resounding 5-1 to the away side. Coppull rallied late on and great work by Lindley (who had replaced Jay Briody in the centre of the park) on the by line resulted in him ghosting past three players before being abruptly brought down in the area. Gooden stepped up to convert the resulting penalty and less than two minutes later he doubled his tally for the day when he volleyed home a ball from a very tight angle to add a little respectability to the scoreline, 3-5. The final minutes of the game were marred by two sending offs as Gooden led with his arm in the arm before one of the Vickerstown players took retribution into his own hands by throwing a punch back at Jack. Both players were dismissed and both teams finished the game with 10-men.
Another defeat for Coppull and another game were an error-strewn display resulted in gifting their opposition goals. That is not taking anything away from Vickerstown however who were a good side and with their number 9 up front will cause a lot of teams problems this season.
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