Billinge Juniors V Ashton Athletic 7th January 2007

 

Result 1 – 1                                                            Man Of The Match Crawford

Goals Frederick (Penalty 12)

This was a game between the two form sides of the Division with Billinge extending their run to 9 games unbeaten. The scoreline reflected the game with two very evenly matched teams with Ashton at full strength and Billinge nearly at full strength.

Billinge’s first opportunity fell to Bradshaw from a superb corner from Sinnott after 6 minutes as he arched in the air with the ball marginally too high for a decent header and hit the bar.

Billinge went 1-0 up after Leyland was rather harshly adjudged to have been brought down in the box with the referee, who had an excellent game, adjudging the Ashton defender to have raised his arms.

Fredders stepped up to convert the penalty into the bottom left hand corner.

There then followed a series of half chances from distance from Ashton as they sought to get back into the game with Craig shooting well over the bar after 20 minutes and after a good move down Billinge’s right, Jordan struck a shot which Ryan , who was runner up for the man of the match spot today, tipped over superbly from close range.

Ryan also had to be alert as he scooped up a shot from distance from his namesake from Ashton after 26 minutes. After 30 minutes Fredders  hit a shot over when clean through from a Barron through ball.

As Ashton began to win 60% of the midfield battles it was no surprise they scored after they had constantly played the same ball through in behind our full backs with Owen drawn forward and their diminutive lively striker finished low to Ryan’s right to make it 1-1.

The second half started brightly for Billinge with Fredders and Deano exchanging a couple of flick passes in central midfield with Fredders being released shooting well over when well placed. One minute later it was Deano’s turn to do the same thing.

The save of the match came after 48 minutes when Ryan had to be alert to save full length from Jordan as the game began to open up.

In truth with firepower still on the touchline and the necessity to shore up left midfield, we may have got a narrow win here but with the players on the pitch a draw was probably a fair result.

Both sides were excellent and these are probably the best two teams in the Wigan League at the moment with Ashton now back to full strength .