BLUES TAME THE PESKY BULLS

With Leek Town consolidating their 5th place position on Saturday it was important to get something out of this game with Prescot Cables still having play off ambitions of their own, and boasting the best home record in the league.

Neil Baker made two changes from the side that beat Mossley rotating Rio Adebisi for Lewis Short and the injured Tim Grice for Aaron Bott.

Blues started like a bull out of a gate and were denied twice within the first 5 minutes with Niall Maguire hitting the post and then having his header saved from an exquisite Daniel Trickett-Smith cross.

On six minutes Blues were in front when Trickett-Smith made space on the edge of the box and placed a lovely shot into the bottom corner to beat Prescot keeper Ollie Taylor.

Leek continued to pile on the pressure with Maguire being denied again with an almost identical header and then good work from Bott dispossessing McCulloch only to have his shot saved at close range.

Prescot gradually grew into the game and when Leek failed to clear their lines had a speculative headed effort hit the bar just before half time. This would have been harsh on Leek who had controlled the majority of the first half.

The second half began as the first half had ended, a scrappy affair with few chances, with players trying to play football on a poor surface. Prescot applied some pressure and were rewarded with a corner, however from this Leek broke with a sweeping move from end to end which ended with Stevenson just pulling his shot wide.

The second half was much closer with Leek defending resolutely, Prescot became very frustrated and this boiled over as the referee issued three yellow cards to Prescot players in the space of 12 minutes. Luke Griffiths was fortunate also not to see red for a poor tackle on Niall Green which should have resulted in a second yellow.

Prescot rolled the twice and brought on Lloyd Dean and leading scorer Chris Almond in the push for an equaliser. Leek then brought fresh legs in the form of Charlie Walford, on for Dan Trickett-Smith who had been the most creative player on the pitch.

There was still time for some late pressure from Prescot and another break by Leek but the Blues saw out the remainder of the game with 4 minutes of added time in what could be an extremely important result in their season.

The loyal travelling support cheered loudly at the sound of the final whistle with the Leek team applauding their efforts.

Manager Neil Baker commented "I thought the lads were magnificent to a man - battled hard and played well in a really difficult fixture but they came through it"

Team:

1. Danny Roberts
2. Niall Green
3. Lewis Short
4. Marc Grocott
5. Darren Chadwick (c)
6. Jack Sanders
7. Niall Maguire
8. Billy Reeves
9. Aaron Bott
10. Dan Trickett-Smith (13. Charlie Walford, 82)
11. Rob Stevenson

Unused subs: 12. Rio Adebisi, 14. Jordan Johnson, 16. Oliver Harrison, 17. Ben Chapman

Cards: None

Attendance: 275

Updated 21:20 - 29 Aug 2019 by Jonathan Eeles