Away team takes the points at Gawthorpe

Last updated : 14 January 2007 By Andy Ashworth

Rob Turner - got the late winner

Lining up in yellow this morning a strong Clarets line up took on their visiting hosts Accrington Stanley hoping to make it a double, following their demolition earlier in the season. Dale Underwood was still missing and both Rob Turner and Adam Kay took places on the bench. There was a first start for U-16 defender Tim Ratchett, playing at centre-half in place of Jack Overson.

There was a strong wind blowing from behind our goal as we began the first half and throughout the half we looked to capitalise on this advantage. We created chance after chance and the visitors were up certainly up against it. It was only a solid display by their keeper which kept the scoreline even. He made one mistake all half almost leading to Jon Sergeant opening his goalscoring tally with a clearance which the bounced over him. The ball was rolling in but he managed to recover in time to claw the ball round the post at the last second.

Dean Stott had two good headed chances and their keeper also saved well from a thunderous Jay Rodriguez drive, following a delightful ball from Lewis Craig on the left. The only other noteworthy point of the 1^st half was a booking for Ash Young due to dissent.

The 2^nd half started and was a mere 2 minutes old when we finally got our noses in front. Alex McDonald played a ball into the feet of Ali Akbar who worked the ball well to evade a challenge and power it past the despairing dive of the keeper. Within another 2 minutes both Craig and Rodriguez could have scored as the Accy defence lost all cohesion. Craig then picked up the ball on the half way line and surged forward, hammering the ball goalwards, but he found only the bar.

The first real chance came for Stanley around half way through the 2^nd period. A corner from the left wing was met with a powerful header, but a combination of Paul Casey and Sergeant somehow managed to keep the ball out. We immediately broke and should have done better with chances for Young and Rodriguez.

We then introduced some U-16 players to the field, with James Craggs and Phil Cooper coming on for Akbar and Rodriguez. Alex McDonald also had to leave the field after taking a heavy knock while attempting to shoot.

As the clock ran down their was a ominous feeling that we were going to see a repeat of last weeks late comeback as Stanley began to turn on the pressure. With 5 minutes to go they equalised and it was similar to the Blackpool equaliser last week, with a free kick on the wing swung in, onto a waiting head. However, while last week we crumbled, this week we were galvanised.

We continued to attack with Craggs seeing a lot of the ball. He was hacked down in the box after skinning the centre-half, but Keith Hackett has obviously told his officials that Gawthorpe is also a hard place to go to, with a vociferous crowd who will unduly pressure them. Needless to say he turned it down, giving a goal kick instead. Connor Smith took umbrage and was booked – our 2nd yellow for dissent.

The decision further fuelled our desire to win. Craggs again skipped into the box and his cut back was met by Turner, but his clipped shot hit the angle of post and bar, before being hacked away. We didn't get a break until we were into stoppage time. An apparent handball by us went unnoticed by the officials and we again broke, with the ball being fed into Turner, who took a touch and hammered home to give us a deserved win.

Team:- Jon Sergeant, Dean Stott, Paul Casey, Tim Ratchett, Thomas Bradley, Ali Akbar (James Craggs), Lewis Craig, Ash Young, Connor Smith, Jay Rodriguez (Phil Connor), Alex McDonald (Rob Turner). Subs not used:- Chris Lynch, Adam Kay.