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Irlam 4-1 Cheadle Town
Cheadle Town suffered a heavy - and potentially damaging - defeat at Silver Street in their push for a play-off place
And with this defeat we slip out of the top six for the first time since autumn; it might turn out to be a badly-timed shift as only three games remain.
Goals change games as the old adage goes, and the two that Irlam got in a two-minute spell midway through the second half unceremoniously kicked our foot away having fought hard to get it in the door before half-time.
Liam Tongue's daisy-cutting drive (he's good at those) from the edge of the box with five minutes of the first half remaining hauled us back into the match having seen the hosts race to a two-goal lead.
Jordan Southworth muscled his way onto the ball on the right on 25 minutes to drive home from the angle before Christian Lawlor tucked home at the far post after a cross from the right wasn't dealt with by our defence.
Previous to the opening goal we had a couple of decent chances on goal. Luke Pearson stung the fingertips of the Irlam keeper on 13 minutes before Mike Sherrington had actually put the ball into the net shortly afterwards, only to be denied by the linesman's flag.
Steve Piggott kept the scoreline at 1-2 with an excellent save just before half-time, getting down smartly to his right to stop a header.
We made a strong start to the second half as we pushed for the equaliser.
On 51 minutes Liam Tongue fizzed in a free-kick that spun up off the hands of the Irlam keeper; Mike Sherrington got his head onto the loose ball but could only direct it onto the post.
Steve Piggott was on-hand again to make a smart stop just after the hour mark before the match slipped out of our hands in that mad couple of minutes.
For Irlam's third, Steve had actually made an excellent double save but could do nothing to prevent Boland bundling in on the third time of asking. Confusion then reigned as the linesman had initially had his flag up, with the referee then choosing to overrule.
Still feeling slightly aggrieved we then perhaps switched off as a cross from the right was easily tapped home by an unmarked Lawlor for his second of the game and Irlam's fourth.
Three games left: Manchester Northwich Villa, Rochdale Town and Daisy Hill, all away from home. It's still possible - of course it's still possible - but we're now in the situation of it being out of our hands.
Nine points and, admittedly now, a few favours, snookers, call them what you will, is what we need.
Onwards and chins up.
TEAM: Piggott, Smallwood, Pearson, Trucca, Halliwell (McLaughlin), Dunne, Hincks, Tongue (Stevenson), M Sherrington, Whyatt, Magida (Horan). SUBS: Stevenson, McLaughlin, Horan.
Before the match, Mike Sherrington received his NWCFL Player of the Month award from the league's very own Geoff Wilkinson
Cheadle Town 1-2 Irlam
Cheadle Town suffered a setback in their play-off push as two late goals gave Irlam all three points
For everything that was gained in that well-earned win at Holker on Saturday, it seemed to be all lost in six minutes late into the second half of this match.
At the end of the Holker match report we said that all we could do is win our games and see what happens; this loss is a major blow and now leaves us with one card less in our hand.
What makes it more galling is that this is a match we should have won; yet again I have to type the words "we should have been out of sight" and yet again we have let a team off the hook by not converting the decent chances we had.
And what chances.
In the 35th minute Josh Stevenson used his blistering pace to steal a march on the Irlam defence and round the keeper; with the goal at his mercy his shot didn't quite have the legs it needed, thus allowing an Irlam defender to hack it off the line.
A minute later and we were given a penalty; that chance went begging as Magida's kick was saved by the keeper.
Three minutes before half-time, Josh Stevenson's ball in from the right looked an easy tap-in for Liam Tongue but it somehow ended up being scooped over the bar from a yard out.
Given the chances we had squandered, the goal that gave us the lead a minute after the restart was in slightly odd circumstances.
Mike Sherrington advanced on goal, checked inside and then went for it, albeit with not the strongest shot you'll ever see; it somehow still managed to squirm under the keeper's body and roll in.
That was it in terms of our chances for the rest of the match but we still appeared to be in decent control of the match.
As we entered the final twelve minutes the only thing that had caused us concern was a goalmouth scramble just after the hour mark where we defended well and managed to eventually hack the ball away.
But on that 78th minute the foundations of our hard work started to crumble.
A driven cross in from the right was parried clear by Steve Piggott with the loose ball hammered home through a sea of bodies and into the top corner by Lawlor.
Irlam then pressed on and got their winner with only six minutes of the match remaining when a free-kick in from the right wasn't cleared and, after a short moment of goalmouth havoc, was slammed home from close range by Kpohgomou.
Five games left. Next up is an awkward away fixture at Manchester Northwich Villa before our final home game of the season against Barnton next Wednesday evening. Six points are a must now....
TEAM: Piggott, McLaughlin, Magida, Trucca, Moore, Smallwood, Stevenson, Tongue, Sherrington, Whyatt, Horan (Nsimbe). SUBS: O'Donnell, Halliwell, Nsimbe.
Irlam 3-2 Cheadle Town
Cheadle Town tumbled out of the First Division Trophy with this cruel defeat at the hands of Irlam.
Blame me. I jinxed it.
With all three of the allocated minutes of injury time gone I had prepped a tweet saying "going into extra time" just as Irlam were about to send in a free-kick; unfortunately we chose the wrong time to not deal with said ball, allow it to bounce in the area and have poor Michael Birch shaft it into his own net in his haste to clear it. There was no time left to make amends.
A terrible shame as we had worked hard in the latter stages of the second half to haul ourselves back level after going 1-2 down and give ourselves another 30 minutes at trying to turn the tie back around in our favour.
We had also started the game reasonably well, taking the lead in the 18th minute thanks to a superb Liam Tongue effort.
In the lead-up to that we had already seen Liam fire the first shot in anger on the 9th minute and Rick Whyatt see a turn and shot in the box denied by a good one-handed save shortly afterwards.
When Rick turned the ball inside from the right for Liam on that 18th minute he swung a right foot at it and sent a curling, looping shot right into the top corner; think Yaya Toure's goal for Manchester City in the League Cup Final versus Sunderland a couple of years ago and you get the idea.
The pattern of the first half then shifted with the hosts having much the better of what remained.
It culminated in Irlam getting a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark when Liam Morrison's - Irlam's Man of the Match for me - shot from the edge of the box got a slight deflection on its way in, sending Josh Samberg the wrong way.
They should have been ahead just three minutes later but their striker somehow managed to send it skywards when put through and only a couple of yards out.
Josh Samberg was then called into action a couple of times before the break, making an excellent block on 41 minutes when Irlam looked set to score from close range (and perhaps being guilty of dallying for too long) and then showing strong hands two minutes later to beat away a fierce drive.
We found ourselves behind ten minutes after the restart after Irlam continued their pressure and a couple of undeserved yellow cards seemed to upset our rhythm. It was a well-worked move by Irlam: a nice combination of passes down the left side resulting in Boland crashing home from just inside the box.
But then the pendulum swung again.
Substitute Arnold Nsimbe looked through on goal and set to score on 77 minutes but took too long over his shot thus allowing the Irlam defence to snuff out the danger. No sooner had that chance gone begging, Liam Tongue was then put through on goal to drill home from the edge of the box.
Just two minutes after that an Irlam cross from the left found a blue-shirted free head but he got his bearings completely wrong and the ball troubled the corner flag more than it did our goal.
The tie was set to go either way and set to have that extra half-hour, but we were all spared even more of a soaking from the rain by its rather unfortunate ending.
Best of luck to Irlam in the quarter-final when they travel to Litherland REMYCA. We do battle again on Boxing Day for the league fixture.
TEAM: Samberg, Vincent, Pearson, Naughton, Dunn, Birch, Hincks, Tongue, Nolan (Nsimbe), Whyatt, Sherrington. SUBS: Nsimbe, Lee, C Jones, McLaughlin, Kennedy.
November Preview
A not-so-busy November ahead for our First XI but some key fixtures nonetheless....
Saturday 7th
Irlam (away)
First Division Trophy 2nd Round
Our first November fixture offers us the chance to step away from the stress of the league campaign and focus on the smaller of the two "domestic" cup competitions, the First Division Trophy.
Our record at Silver Street isn't that bad, upset only by the one defeat in our last five visits there but we will have to be wary of an Irlam outfit that have had a very good season thus far; at the time of writing they are sitting in 6th spot and have only been defeated twice at home.
This visit will also give us the opportunity to see how their new clubhouse is coming along. Going off what we have seen on social media it looks very smart indeed.
Irlam's new clubhouse - from the outside...
...and on the inside. We can only look on in envy.
A win takes you into the quarter finals, the format of which will be announced by the NWCFL soon after all ties have completed.
Previous five seasons at Silver Street:
2014-15: drew 2-2
2013-14: lost 0-1
2012-13: won 5-3
2011-12: won 3-1
2010-11: won 2-1
Wednesday 18th
Eccleshall (away)
NWCFL First Division
Re-arranged from Saturday 14th (due to Eccleshall having a Staffordshire Vase tie), this will be our third midweek trip to Pershall Park in succession. A long night awaits, especially if the M6 is up to its usual tricks.
They may be rock bottom of the table but don't let that fool you. They still have plenty of games-in-hand to haul themselves out of trouble and gave us plenty of food for thought when they came to Park Road earlier in the season.
Previous five seasons at Pershall Park:
2014-15: won 1-0
2013-14: won 3-1
2012-13: won 2-0
2011-12: won 5-0
2010-11: lost 2-3
Saturday 21st
Northwich Manchester Villa (home)
NWCFL First Division
As this goes to press Northwich Manchester Villa have an FA Vase 1st Round replay versus Whitley Bay pending which puts this fixture in a "50-50" status as it's the 2nd round on Saturday 21st.
The fact that they have taken Whitley Bay to a replay should tell us that this won't be easy.
Despite our relatively good record at Park Road against 'Villa the victories haven't come without extraordinary effort on our part; 'Villa have always proved to be hard work and you never know what you are going to get when you face them.
At the time of writing they were in good league form. Another difficult afternoon awaits.
Previous five seasons at Park Road:
2014-15: won 2-1; lost 2-3 (Cheshire Senior Cup)
2013-14: lost 1-2
2012-13: won 2-1
2011-12: won 3-0
2010-11: did not meet
Saturday 28th
Whitchurch Alport (away)
NWCFL First Division
The powers-that-be at Yockings Park won't thank me for this but if I was a betting man I'd put my money on a draw.
Yockings Park - somewhere new for us to tick off the list
At the start of November the NWCFL newcomers had already clocked up nine draws, seven of which at Yockings and were it not for two late goals for us in the fixture at Park Road at the start of the season, the number of draws would have been ten.
We always like to go somewhere new so we are looking forward to our first visit there...and to hopefully come away with all three points before a difficult-looking December schedule hoves into view....