Nose bleeds at youth level

Alex Taylor - another goal for the youths

As was the case last Saturday they were lousy conditions throughout the whole game. There was a swirling wind and was pouring with rain for the whole ninety minutes.

Burnley started much the better side, making light of the conditions, and were passing the ball around really well and creating chances, three pretty good ones in fact. One was saved well by the keeper, another he tipped over the bar and Cayne Hanley could have scored from the third with a little more composure.

We were to pay for those missed chances and with five minutes of the first half left Oldham were allowed to get down the left and the cross was not cut out leaving them with an easy tap in to take the lead.

However, the Clarets came back and a couple of minutes later an almost identical move at the other end led to Chris McCann equalising and we went in at half time 1-1 although the performance had deserved more than that.

A few minutes into the second half and it was 2-1 with Alex Taylor again scoring, carving something out of nothing. He ran in on the left hand side of the box and from an acute angle lashed a shot past the Oldham keeper.

Soon after it could have been 2-2 after Oldham got themselves a great chance as their forwards raced clean through on goal. Michael Hale stood his ground before racing out to make a good save at the forward’s feet.

The Clarets extended their lead with a cracking goal from Tom Ince. He made a run down the middle, he had the option of playing in Taylor but the defence opened up and he shot from just inside the box, his left footer giving the keeper no chance.

The fourth was a real team goal which came after some good interplay and passing around the Oldham box before Marc Pugh scored from close range.

The visitors tried to get back into the game but goalkeeper and defence were in fine form and were able to prevent them pulling even one back.

This was a fine team performance with everyone having good games, and it came against a big strong team run by former Claret Tony Philliskirk.

The performance must have been a good one because coach Terry Pashley got so excited he brought on too many substitutes – four in all.

The youngsters have set high standards this week with some excellent performances and results, hopefully they will be able to maintain those standards.

Joe Booth suffered a head injury and that was the only bad news on a good day for the youth team with Pashley even able to bring on three Centre of Excellence youngsters during the second half.

The team was,

Michael Hale, Rob Henry (Connor Smith), Chris McCann, Neal Trotman, Martin Reilly, Marc Pugh (Tom McLean), Joe Booth (Adam Jones), Nicky Platt, Tom Ince, Alex Taylor, Cayne Hanley (Jamie Robertson).