Cheadle Town 0-2 New Mills
A harsh lesson in what happens when you don't take your chances.
They were at a premium throughout the whole of this, you could argue, turgid affair but when they fell to us we snatched at them, when they fell to New Mills they put them both away.
We started brightly enough and could have gone a goal ahead within the first minute. James Dunn's cross from the right almost met by Rick Whyatt but he was just beaten to it by the Millers keeper.
Four minutes later and Rick finds the ball at his feet on the edge of the area but his side-footed effort is weak and is easily gathered by the keeper.
And then that was pretty much that until the 29th minute when another gilt-edged chance came our way. A neat move saw the ball headed across the face of goal and right onto the feet of Adam Gardiner who looked set to blast home but was denied by an excellent point-blank stop.
On the stroke of half-time Rick Whyatt had another opportunity but snatched at his shot when well-positioned on the right of the area and sent it wide.
So, we had started okay but faded badly as the second half got under way, only registering one decent effort with seen minutes to go as Luke Pearson blazed over after another searching James Dunn cross from the right.
By then we were chasing the game as New Mills had nudged into a 1-0 lead thanks to Jack McConnell just before the hour mark, getting onto the end of a ball fired across the face of goal to tuck home at the far post.
Two minutes into injury time they repeated the medicine with exactly the same move; Ed Driver profiting this time to seal the points for the visitors.
And that's all there is to say about the match, to be honest. Not the best day at the office on the pitch although off it we did record a healthy crowd of 125; thank you to everybody who braved the cold to come and watch.
Onto Bacup this Thursday evening and a quick opportunity to put matters right.
TEAM: Whiting, Dunn, Pearson, Trucca (Wood), Shaw, Harrison, Ambrose, Fleming, Gardiner (Collinson), Whyatt, C Sherrington (Ratican), SUBS: Collinson, Ratican, Wood, Piggott (GK)
