Bacup Borough 5-5 Cheadle Town
In terms of sheer entertainment, I suppose the 2015-16 season is all downhill from here.
Ten goals, two penalties - one of which scored when we should have all been on our way home - an early contender for Bacup's goal of the season and one hell of a comeback on our part. Where to start?
Ridiculously early days to start expressing tub-thumping statements but if the courage and guts that we displayed to get this draw knocks around for the remainder of the season then we'll be alright.
As tempting as it is to start at the end and wax lyrical about our fightback, it's probably best to start at the beginning with this one to give you a real-time sense of the narrative.
As early as the first minute it looked as though we would be in for a difficult afternoon as a Bacup striker latched onto a through ball following a counterattack and lobbed inches wide.
The hosts then took the lead after 9 minutes. As it would transpire, this wouldn't be the first time we failed to deal with a Bacup set piece as a corner was fizzed in from the right before being stabbed home by Adrian Bellamy.
Just eight minutes later and Bacup extended their lead when Bryan had all the time in the world to meet a left-wing cross with his head and beat Piggott from close range.
We then had two half-chances to open our season account. A nice combination between Mssrs Mason and Horan resulted in the latter turning neatly on the edge of the box and firing just over the upright. James Dunn then turned in a cross from the right only for Chris Sherrington to rifle over at the far post.
On 38 minutes we were undone by another Bacup corner, Bellamy profiting again as he turned home from close range after the initial corner was headed back across goal.
It was at this point that the match turned from being a regular win for the home side to something a bit demented.
Minutes after Bacup went 3-0 up we won a penalty that was duly converted by Luke Pearson with us then seemingly surrendering any foothold we had gained by giving a way a penalty for Bacup straight from the restart.
1-4 down at half-time. There didn't seem to be a way back.
Bacup were in again 60 seconds after the restart but the resulting effort was just wide of Piggott's post with Antony Trucca then seeing a header from a corner chested off the line.
The madness stepped up a gear on the hour mark with four goals in around five minutes.
We reduced the deficit on 61 minutes when Darrhyl Mason bundled home from close range following a Pearson corner.
Just two minutes later Bacup's Boyne added to the penalty he got at the end of the first half by collecting his own knock-on and firing home from the tightest of angles; think Van Basten vs USSR in the Euro 88 final and you have a rough idea.
Straight up the other end Chris Sherrington blasted home a free-kick to make it 3-5 with the fightback most definitely on two minutes later as Mason got his second of the match, meeting a Luke Hincks free-kick at the far post and deftly heading home.
Just to prove that this match was to have everything (bar a dog on the pitch), Michael Birch then suffered concussion after a nasty-looking (and sounding) clash of heads. Unfortunately this wasn't to be the last injury that our physio Tanya had to deal with.
We poked and prodded some more with all looking lost when Trucca, with a free header and injury time beckoning, completely lost his bearings and placed his effort wildly wide.
The six minutes of injury time were almost up when Bacup's Sylvester Yeboah bore down on our goal with two of our defence giving chase. Just as he was about to shoot he seemed to trip over his own feet.
It looked innocuous at first but it then became evident that all was not well. Tanya was on hand to give help and he had to be carried off on a stretcher. As it transpires he broke his thigh bone and will evidently be out for a while. All of us here at Cheadle Town FC wish him a speedy recovery.
Given everything that had happened we ended up having 13 minutes of injury time, and it was in that 13th minute that we were awarded our second penalty and a chance to leave Bacup with a point tucked under our arms. Yours truly "couldn't watch" Luke Pearson take it (sorry Luke, my blood pressure had had quite enough already) so I had to rely on the bedlam from the bench to confirm that the comeback had been completed.
After this a sane 1-0 win on Wednesday vs Chadderton will be enough, thank you very much.
TEAM: Piggott, Dunne, Pearson, Trucca, Birch (McLaughlin), McAuley, Mason, Hincks, Horan (Rawlings), Whyatt (Nolan), Sherrington. SUBS: McLaughlin, Rawlings, Nolan, Dixon (gk).
