BURSCOUGH 1 ABBEY HEY 1
By Neil Leatherbarrow
Burscough entertained a strong physical and very organised Abbey Hey team on the first day of the North West Counties League Premier Division season on Saturday, however they took to the pitch with two or three absentees from their expected starting midfield and arguably it did have an effect on the performance, both teams cancelling out their opponents most creative efforts.
It was an even first-half with few chances and the opening twenty minutes saw little in the way of inspiring play with defences at both ends firmly in control.
On 22 minutes Burscough sought to break the deadlock with a free kick, despite a good strike from Matt Hamilton’s left foot Abbey goalkeeper Connor Beard made a good save at his near post.
In attack new centre-forward Tom Peterson was being smothered by Abbey central defender Josh Dickin and the pair went to on to have quite a competitive tussle, the lads from the east side of Manchester had clearly done their homework on the Linnets leader.
On 31 minutes Linnets goalkeeper Ben Barnes go the better of an attack by Jamal Crawford, then moments before the interval Finley Hampson had a great chance with a free header for Abbey but his attempt was poor and went a good way off target.
Burscough had arguably had more of the possession but the continuity was still on the drawing board.
The visitors started the second-half well territorially but the Burscough defence looked solid and organised.
Changes were made Bradley Shearwood and Lenny Zorbas coming on as substitutes for Burscough andit did have some effect as Burscough gradually restored a slight upper hand but it would require a bit of something improvised to open up two established defences.
Significantly on 75 minutes Abbey were sentenced to ten men for ten minutes as strong central midfielder Rhys Clooney was sent to the sin bin for expressing his opinions vociferously to the referee.
Five minutes later Burscough took advantage, Shearwood set off on a surging run through the Abbey Hey centre, breaking through three challenges before playing the ball beyond the Abbey defence to Hamilton who fired the ball past keeper Beard’s left hand to give Burscough the lead.
All looked good for Burscough, then on 85 minutes Clooney came back onto the pitch and it lifted Abbey Hey, a shot went on goal from substitute Cody Artwell and Barnes got down well to save, but as the ball ran free Edward Schryburt dived in with Barnes and managed to poke the ball into the net for an equaliser.
The game then settled down again to its earlier pattern and although Burscough will be disappointed to have conceded a late equaliser when it looked like they done enough for victory, a draw could be said to be the fair result on the day, two evenly matched teams fought out a stalemate on a hot day.
BURSCOUGH: Barnes, Cannon-Noren, Rigby, Cushion, McCulloch ©, Bell, Turner, Wildman, Peterson, Hamilton, Laird Subs Duff, Coughlan, Shearwood, Zorbas. Mukoko
ABBEY HEY: Beard, Grant, Thompson, Dickin ©, Stanyer, Schryburt, Hampson, Crawford, Edokpayi, Clooney, Sarr Subs Bongwanga, Page, Artwell, Sarpong, Pickford
REFEREE: Isaac Santos-Munn
ATTENDANCE: 101
