Cheadle Town 0-3 Litherland REMYCA
And for all the happiness that surrounded the win at Penistone on Saturday in glorious sunshine, there was this disappointment underneath thick skies and persistent rain.
Credit to REMYCA: they were direct, efficient, neat-and-tidy...and as the scoreline suggests it paid off in spades as their league campaign, now two games old, has made a promising start.
Us? We just never got going. Never got into the stride that brought its rewards over the weekend. Mis-placed passes. Bad decisions...and, it has to be said, a whiff of rotten luck early in the second half.
Fine margins. With the second half only three minutes old and with us chasing a 0-2 deficit, Liam Tongue attempts an outrageous overhead kick that cannons off the crossbar and is hacked to safety.
If that goes in, yadda yadda yadda...but the direction of plenty of football matches has changed direction when a team has pulled it back to 1-2.
As in Penistone over the weekend, we conceded early, albeit more than 36 seconds had passed on this occasion.
On the 8th minute a cross from the right was hit first-time by Foley and the slight knick it took off a Cheadle defender was enough to flummox Steve Piggott and sent it past him.
Steve was called into action again on the 20th minute, doing well to get down to his right to palm away an effort before he could absolutely nothing about REMYCA's second goal four minutes later: Colin Quirk's measured shot from 25 yards out arrowing into the top corner.
They were then given another chance as their no7 punted over the crossbar when in a good position in the penalty area.
Our chances were restricted to half-ones in the opening 45 minutes.
On 23 minutes Mike Sherrington went on a good run down the left, checked inside but then shot straight at the keeper, with Luke Pearson doing the same with a quickly-taken corner just after the half-hour mark.
We carved out some better efforts in the second half, with Liam's effort proving to be the catalyst.
Just before the hour mark Luke Hincks made the keeper work with a well-struck effort from the edge of the area with James Moore then having our best chance to reduce arrears, placing a free header wide from a corner.
REMYCA then ended the game the stronger, forcing Steve Piggott into a brilliant double save on 74 minutes, clawing the ball from the goal line and then blocking from close range before they wrapped up the three points for sure in injury time, Boyle glancing in a header from a free-kick.
One down, forty-one to go. Forty-one. Still plenty of time yet....!
TEAM: Piggott, McLaughlin, Pearson, Russell, Moore, Dunn, Hincks, Tongue, Noar, M Sherrington, German. SUBS: Horan, Connolly, Whyatt, Shaw.
