Billinge Juniors 3 – Ashton 2
The game had everything! A late rally from Ashton which was too little too late after a penalty was conceded in the 55th minute, two fantastic goals one from each team and 70 minutes of hard competitive football from both teams.
Billinge went 1-0 up early on with a great Leyland finish after Bradshaw played a great ball through to split the defence after 15 minutes. It stayed like this until half time with each team cancelling each other out and both teams resorted to strikes from distance.
A minute after the restart Billinge were 2 – 0 up after great work from Frederick saw him clean through on goal and he calmly placed the ball around Clarke in goal amid wild celebrations. This seemed to knock the stuffing out of Ashton and some 15 minutes later it was 3-0 after a cheeky finish from Barron from a tight angle as the Ashton Goalie came out which was surely the goal off the game.
Ashton at 3-0 still kept battling and got back into the game with a disputed penalty which Ryan got his hands to but could not keep out.
At 3-1 with Billinge winning most of the midfield battles and still on the attack a great goal from the right against the run of play saw Ashton 3-2 down with five minutes to go and they began to believe they would get a point which would have been tough luck on Billinge who eventually ran out deserved winners on the day.
Ashton were hampered by a lack of substitutes and although they showed a lot of spirit Billinge were superior technically and other than a magnificent strike from distance gave nothing away today and had the stronger of the two defences.
We go to the reverse fixture now with confidence and take heart from this performance, without using all the players at our disposal, to push now for the title with Westhoughton surely looking over their shoulder now.
Goals Leyland (1) 15, Frederick (1) 36, Barron (1) 55
MOM Bibby