THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME AT SKEM

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME AT SKEM

SKELMERSDALE UNITED 1 HALESOWEN TOWN 2

By Neil Leatherbarrow

For his first home game as Skelmersdale United manager new boss Alan Rogers fielded a much changed side, five of the starting eleven were not with the club two weeks ago and only captain Phil Mooney was with the club at the start of the season. So it really wasn’t surprising that it took a while for them to settle, but by the end it was clear that they are going to be entertaining to watch and more significantly, they are going to scare the life out of a large number of the teams in the Evo-Stik Premier Division, they are the shape of things to come with their free flowing football, pace and willingness to run at defenders.
It was understandable that Alan Rogers appeared frustrated when asked how does it feel in a post match interview, after all his youthful side had almost fought back from two goals down, having had the majority of the possession and left the visitors from the West Midlands desperately hanging on at the end. His strong finishing team did not deserve to have nothing tangible to show when the final whistle went.
Halesowen could have scored twice in the first eleven minutes their number nine Tristian Dunkley hitting the outside of the post and then putting a clever lob just wide, but in between Skem had gone close too via a Steve Gillespie effort.
On 17 minutes a nice exchange of passes between Nathan Randell and Gillespie gave the ball to an off balance Jack Watts, but he couldn’t get a clean connection.
However, Skelmersdale got stronger and by the period just before the interval they had Halesowen on the defensive, the result was a Watts ball into the box that hit the crossbar and a shot from him that was only kept out by a magnificent diving save from Halesowen goalkeeper Daniel Platt.
The early part of the second-half was close with one storming run by Randell seeing a shot go just wide.
Halesowen struck on 57 minutes. A free-kick was only partially cleared and the ball went to Town’s left-wing, Matt Briley hoisted the ball back into the goalmouth and six foot plus centre-back Liam Slade nodded home the ball. All leaving Paul Rogers telling the referee “Look what you done”, as along with many he considered the awarding of the original free-kick wrong.
When Halesowen doubled their lead with a breakaway on 73 minutes, it looked very difficult for Skem, Ethan Delaney netting after a diagonal ball from Ben Clarke.
However, it wasn’t to be a run runaway victory for Town as Skelmersdale upped the tempo and didn’t call it quits.
Remmy Howarth certainly looks a player with a future as he terrorised the left side of the visiting defence at every opportunity, while Watts was orchestrating matters from the middle of the park.
Watts beat keeper Platt all ends up in the 84th minute, but the crossbar came to Town’s rescue. When Curveball Solutions man of the match Nathan Randell pulled the ball back across goal after a run down the left, giving Dean Shacklock a tap-in on 88 minutes, it really was game on.
Halesowen were left hacking the ball clear and packing their penalty area as Skelmersdale swarmed forward. It was too late though, an equaliser would have brought the house down, but the clock beat Skem in the end. It could certainly be argued that if they had scored five minutes earlier they would very likely have equalised.
One significant factor the Skelmersdale support learned on the day was, if you want to watch some exciting football between now and the end of the season, the Uretek Stadium is the place to go, victories are not far far away. They might just have the beginnings of a good team.

SKELMERSDALE UNITED: Cheetham, Bradshaw (Howarth, 45), McNally (Shacklock, 69), Jefferies, Grogan C., Mooney (c), Watts, Vaughan-Muscat, Randell, Gillespie, Allan Subs (not used) Mason, Callaway, Dabo

HALESOWEN TOWN: Platt, Bennett-Tindall, Briley, Slade, Charlton, Bragoli, Clarke, Dunkley (Wheatley, 78), O’Neill-Martin (Chilton, 56), Delaney Subs (not used) Wallace, Carthy, O’Day

Referee: Dean Watson Attendance: 202