Cheadle Town 4-2 Eccleshall

10 Sept

If you're looking for goals and value for your five pounds sterling at the moment, come and see us at Park Road.

As alluded to in the Staveley match report, the rub side to such goal gluttony is us putting you through the emotional grinder. We made hard work of this at times and were grateful for James Horan's late sealer to put paid to an Eccleshall fightback.

A statistic that I am rather keen on peddling to anybody who will listen is the fact that Cheadle very rarely get a win when they have conceded first.

So when Eccleshall's Adam Jones opened the evening's goalscoring with only four minutes gone it looked as though that particular factoid would hold true and Eccleshall's rather decent form at Park Road of late would continue.

Eccleshall then went to try and make the most of a rather shabby opening half an hour on our part.

On the 14th minute Steve Piggott had to claw a dangerous, driven cross from his goalmouth with all sorts of danger descending upon him with the visitors then planting a free header wide five minutes later.

On 27 minutes Steve was on hand again to excellently palm away a shot across his bows with us managing to hack the loose ball away in the nick of time.

Bang on the half hour mark the pendulum swung in our favour as we drew level with a well-taken goal.

Latching onto a lofted pass, Darryhl Mason nodded the ball square on the edge of the box for Ben Brooks who dropped his shoulder and waited for the ball to sit right for him before lifting it over the head of the prone Eccleshall keeper.

Five minutes later Rick Whyatt showed good determination on the edge of the box before turning and curling a shot inches wide before he should have put us 2-1 up moments later when he looked certain to bury Ben Brooks' square pass but could only tap his effort into the arms of the keeper.

Two minutes before half time a corner in from the left was met by various Cheadle heads underneath the crossbar but somehow managed to stay out before another corner moments later brought better reward and led to us taking a 2-1 lead into half-time, Anthony Trucca arriving late at the far post to plunge in a header.

Anthony Trucca wheels away in delight after putting us 2-1 up

We started the second half as we had finished the first.

Just two minutes into the restart Ben Brooks raced through on goal and brought an excellent stop from the keeper, Rick Whyatt benefitted from a ricochet but shot wide from the edge of the box when in a good position and Anthony Trucca headed wide at the far post from a corner.

And then, just before the hour mark, we made our pressure count. A multitude of passes ended up with Chris Sherrington crossing from the left for Darryhl Mason to side-foot home a sumptuous volley at the far post for a deserved 3-1 lead.

And then the pendulum swung back again as Eccleshall regained control of the match.

They narrowed the scoreline ten minutes later. Seizing on a misjudged header from John McLaughlin, the ball was shifted out to the right and thumped home by Eccleshall's other Jones, Daniel.

Sensing blood and the opportunity to give the game perfect symmetry, Eccleshall had a good spell of possession.

With ten minutes of the match remaining they almost achieved it in bizarre circumstances. A speculative ball in from the right was completely missed by Steve Piggott, bouncing onto the crossbar before being hastily hacked clear by our defence.

Not for the first time this season (cf. the 4-0 home win vs Daisy Hill), Terry was to make an inspired substitution. With just four minutes of the match remaining and within seconds of him coming on, James Horan killed any whiff of an Eccleshall comeback stone dead when he collected a loose ball on the edge of the box and lashed home.

Next up is a tricky-looking trip to Ashton Town this Saturday....

TEAM: Piggott, McLaughlin, Pearson, Trucca, Kennedy, Dunn, Mason, Hincks, Brooks (Tongue), Whyatt (Horan), Sherrington (Magida). SUBS: Magida, Horan, McAuley, Tongue, Pegler.