Ashton Town AFC 6-2 Bacup Borough

Progress on the pitch

What an absolutely outstanding day for Town., after hitting the headlines in every possible media stream last week following the signing of Pascal Chimbonda, it was the team camaraderie and battle that came out tops.
All eyes where obviously on Pascal from the start, and Bacup chose to man mark the former Premier League and French international, even at the ripe old age of 39.
Within the first ten minutes Pascal had been on the end of a few late tackles, with Bacup's Michael Gervin taking his man marking role a little too far with some late challenges, however Pascal did not shy from the scene and had some lovely touches on what in the end was a very boggy pitch following some huge downpours.
Despite the conditions Towns persistance to try and ply football paid of and striker Daley Woods scored a great opener following a great ball from Bradley Smart.
Less then ten minutes later it was two. John Edgerton with a sweet long range strike that went in via the post.
Bacup though, as we found in the fixture earlier in the season dont give up easily, and their useual routine of sending their big centre half Adrian Bellamy up top worked with two quick goals that put them right back in the game.
Town keeper John Courtney was in fine form with some very good saves, and at one point there was a fear of the away side taking the headlines.
Ashton Town manager Dave Dempsey shuffled the pack though to a 4 4 2 with some substitutions and it was all Town bar the odd threat from Bacup's tricky Anthony Hall.
Substitute Rhys Bowers came very close forcing the away keeper into a great pount blank save, but it was full back Luke Edwards who capped off a fantastic performance cutting in a smasing home in the 82nd minute.
From then on Town were relentless, and man of the match Daley Woods, scoring his third hat-trick of the season, scored two late goals, including rounding the keeper with literally the last kick of the game capping of a fine day.
One highlight that has to be mentioned though, is the interaction between manager and new player when Chimbonda was asked to revert from centre midfield to right back, that can be translated to something like 'I may disagree with that as I am 39 and may be a little slower than others'. It was honestly worth the £5 entrance fee alone.
Report by Mark Hayes