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| Nathan Lowe's penalty won it for the Clarets |
The departure of 2 more of our 2nd year scholars on loan meant that only Luke Conlan remained available of that small group. He took the left back berth and offered us our greatest level of experience. Our remaining starters were all either 1st year scholars or schoolboys, with U-15 forward Khius Metz again up front. The benched outfield players were also schoolboys, with scholar Callum Jakovlevs joining them.
It was a bitterly cold day down at Gawthorpe and the first half hour was devoid of much goalmouth action. Closest was the PNE forward Zibaka, who saw a shot cleared from the line by Cameron Dummigan, who had read the situation well to cover. Other than this there was little to shout about.
With around 35 minutes on the clock though, Metz ran onto a ball over the top that had turned the defence. He outmuscled his man and got into the box, getting his body in front and making the defender clip his ankles. The ref pointed to the spot and there was no argument. Nathan Lowe retrieved the ball, and stroked it home from 12 yards, giving the keeper no chance.
Within 30 seconds we could have doubled the lead as a cross from the left was met by a Lewis Nuttall volley from 25 yards. It flew through a pack and the keeper seemed to see it late, but he did enough and saved well. PNE managed to hold on as we stepped up and the half ended with us commanding a slender lead.
The 2nd half started quite slowly but really woke up after around 10 minutes. Brad Jackson, who had been very quiet in the 1st half, picked up the ball on the half way line and went on a mazy dribble. As he got to the edge of the box he poked it goalwards and Jamie Frost attempted to get onto it to add the finish, but couldn’t quite stretch out to it, meaning the ball trickled through to the keeper. Minutes later Frost himself had a good run from the left, but ended it with a shot wide.
We were feeling that we may start regretting missing chances against a powerful PNE side and it almost proved the case. The visitors carved out another chance but Dummigan once more read the situation well to mop up at the back. Jackson countered with another run, this time trying to go all the way himself, but he was crowded out on the edge of the box.
Conor Mitchell in goals found himself called upon to reflexively tip a venomous shot over the bar from close range after a PNE player had turned our defence with a clever ball over Callum Richardson. We again took the fight back down to the other end with Frost on the left deceiving both the full back and centre half and getting into the box along the byline. He cut the ball back but Nuttall skewed his shot wide.
The visitors were putting a too much of a foot in according to the ref and both central midfielders were booked, possibly on the totting up procedure, as there didn’t seem to be much in any single tackle that was being made. We were causing ourselves more harm than the visitors were, with Richardson straining his ankle when stretching for a ball. He was replaced by Waqas Azam into stoppage time.
PNE could have had a late equaliser right at the death and they managed to hit the foot of the post with a speculative effort through a crowd, but we rode our luck and held out for the 1-0 win.
Team:- Conor Mitchell, Cameron Dummigan, Luke Conlan, Alex Whitmore, Callum Richardson (Waqas Azam), Nathan Lowe, Luke Daly, Brad Jackson, Jamie Frost, Lewis Nuttall, Khius Metz.
Subs not used:- Callum Jakovlevs, Andy Nugent, Jake Hargreaves, Andreas Bianga.