SENSATIONAL SKEM FIGHTBACK FROM THREE GOALS DOWN

SENSATIONAL SKEM FIGHTBACK FROM THREE GOALS DOWN

AFC FYLDE 4 SKELMERSDALE UNITED 4

By Neil Leatherbarrow

There are times in football when you think you have seen it all, and then you witness something that throws all the theories and norms straight out of the window, something that makes football the game that people keep going back to, time after time. What Skelmersdale achieved at Fylde’s Kellamergh Park on a dank wet Tuesday night was the equivalent of Preston North End being three goals down at Manchester City and recovering. It just couldn’t happen, could it?
AFC Fylde sit top of National League North and are on a hot run to go into the National League Premier next season, Skelmersdale are lower mid-table in the division behind them. So when Fylde went into a 3-0 lead in the 47th minute, it was time to put your coat on and go home, it was all over. Any bookmaker worth his salt would give you a thousand to one on Skelmersdale winning.
When Skelmersdale pulled a goal back to make it 3-1 in the 64th minute it didn’t matter, there was no way Fylde were going to concede three more. Even when Skem got another on 69 minutes, the thought was Fylde would step up a gear and finish Skem off.
The Skelmersdale pressure on Fylde became incessant and suddenly the big money players began to panic, Skelmersdale levelled on 80 minutes then sensationally took the lead three minutes later.
Finally Fylde did step up a gear and in controversial circumstances because referee Glen Hart surely missed a foul on a Skelmersdale player in the build-up, Fylde levelled in the 87th minute to set up a replay at Skelmersdale on Tuesday 22nd December.
It was the original; “I was there night”.
Fylde had started with some superb football and for a while you wondered what was going to be Skelmersdale’s fate. The hosts roaring into a 2-0 lead inside 19 minutes both goals from marksman Danny Rowe.
For his first goal in the tenth minute, Rowe was allowed too much room when controlling the ball in a central position 25 yards from goal; he turned and fired in a pinpoint shot low into the corner of the net. Nine minutes later the ball was slickly moved down the right by Fylde then switched across the penalty area to a completely unmarked Rowe, who had plenty of time to create an angle and curl the ball inside the far post.
Significantly though, Skelmersdale hadn’t started badly, especially on the offensive and they were creating openings. Shaun Holden was at times rampaging down the left wing and providing some dangerous crosses. Paul Woolcott, Ged Kinsella and Chris Almond going close on a few occasions. Also at least twice the ball went right across the face of the Fylde goal but no one could provide the finishing touch for Skelmersdale.
It was 2-0 to Fylde at the interval, but also very clear that Skelmersdale were not out of it either, a point acknowledged by a number of home supporters.
Tommy Lawson said after the match that he told his players during the interval; “The next goal is vital and could decide the game.” So imagine his horror when Fylde got a third after just two minutes, Danny Lloyd-McGoldrick being presented with a far post tap-in.
Skelmersdale didn’t give up, they pressed harder still and when Kinsella connected full meat with a shot on 51 minutes only to see it hit Fylde’s Dom Collins on the line instead of bulging the net, you began to wonder if it Skelmersdale were going to have any luck at all. I view even more exacerbated by a Kinsella shot that went wide after Tom Ince had set him up.
In the 64th minute Yaw Gyimah nicked the ball and made off for goal, before curling a delightful shot past Fylde goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe into the net from 18 yards.
Fylde were beginning to show signs that the pressure was telling on them and when on 69 minutes Ince pounced on a misunderstanding to make it 3-2, it was definitely game on.
Now Skelmersdale sent wave after wave of attacks on the Fylde goal. Kinsella was again thwarted by a diving save from Hinchliffe then he put in another cross that again got no touch.
Skelmersdale won a corner on 80 minutes the second or third in a few minutes. The initial header from Tony Rendell was blocked, then Hinchliffe supplied a poor punch in a crowded goalmouth, the dropped to Woolcott the smallest player on the pitch and his back header went just under the crossbar to equalise.
Skelmersdale broke on goal three minutes later and Almond went in down the inside right channel, placing the ball into the net for a goal that nobody would have believed possible some sixteen minutes earlier.
Fylde are a good team and although they had been under the cosh for almost all the half they still looked a force on the counterattack, but now they had to attack to save the game. However on 87 minutes it switched again.
Initially referee Mr. Hart gave a free-kick against Gyimah for a foul on Hinchliffe that lets say could easily have been interpreted differently. Then he turned down a free-kick for a foul on Kenny Strickland on the right, this though resulted in a cross from Josh Langley that went to the far post, from where Rowe completed his hat-trick and saved Fylde.
Tommy Lawson added; “All the players deserve to upmost praise, they just wouldn’t give up, I must make a personal thank you to them all. . . The football both teams played was magnificent and the whole match was a credit to the sport. Our support on the night kept behind us all the way through and played a big part, I must thank them too. It was a great atmosphere and should be another one at our place next week.”

AFC FYLDE: Hinchliffe, Hughes C., Sumner, Langley, Roscoe, Baker ©, Hardy (Blinkhorn, 63), Finley (Collins, 19), Rowe, Hughes M. (Charles, 37), Lloyd- McGoldrick Subs not used) Whittle Kay

SKELMERSDALE UNITED: Fearon, Fernandes, Holden, McIntosh ©, Rendell, Woolcott, Almond, Strickland, Gyimah, Kinsella (Staunton-Turner, 90), Ince Subs (not used) Corrigan, Donaldson, Gaskell

Referee: Glen Hart

Attendance: 221

Read more: http://skemunitedforum.proboards.com/thread/2574/afc-fylde-4-skelmersdale-united#ixzz3uvxghkJf