Sunday 16th December saw the Tardy Army travel to Preston Sports Arena for a crunch match against rivals Ingol Rangers. Ingol pipped Lostock to the title last season by a point but seem to be struggling this year for some unknown reason. Only a few weeks back we gave them a battering at the Rec in the LFA Trophy so they were definitely looking for revenge this time around. Tat and Tugs text everyone during the week to stress how important the 3pts were so the majority of the squad decided not to hit town the night before this one.

Lostock started with Walshy in net, a back four of Ben, Greeny, Luke and a return for Jake "the snake" Baldwin at left back. In midfield we had Dash on the right flank, usual centre in Jamie and Alex, with Belly on the left. The strike force was John and Roddy. Mark “Blank” Edmeads once again failed to show after begging all week to be given another chance (what a loser!). Johno, who had a great game last week, was also missing due to his professional boxing commitments. Lostock had a healthy looking bench with player manager Tat taking a seat alongside Kebab, Bridgett who was returning after a 5-week suspension and John "gas tank - hair gel" Stead who was making a return after 8 weeks out with a broken arm. Mind you, looking at it, this was a very heavy bench!

Lostock started like a house on fire, pressing the Ingol back four and forcing a corner straight away. Belly whipped the ball into the box for an on-rushing LUKE ATHERTON to tap home and give Lostock the perfect start after less than a minute. 1-0. The game re-started in the same manner; with every Lostock tackle being strong, every header being won and everyone applying pressure on their opponents and forcing them into making mistakes. The 2nd goal came after hard work from the Lostock midfield. The ball was pinched in midfield and quickly forced out wide to Belly. Belly hit a great low cross which RODDY neatly smashed into the corner of the net. 2-0. From the restart Ingol started to get their passing game going and began to knock the ball around well. However, Lostock would not sit back and kept attacking with every opportunity. The 3rd Lostock goal came from a lovely flowing move down the right hand side. Ben knocked the ball into Johns feet, who did a quick 1-2 with Dashti, then after receiving the ball back John laid it off for DASHTI to race past the last Ingol defender and smash the ball into the roof of the net. 3-0. 1st half ended and Lostock headed into the changing rooms for the half time interval.

During the break Tat and Tugs told the players to carry on with the way they’ve been playing and to try keep hold of the ball as much as possible. The same effort was needed if we wanted all the points.

The 2nd half started with Ingol having more of the ball to begin with. The clock ticked away without any major chances for them though. Then Luke Atherton was called upon to block a cross from the Ingol right flank. The Ingol striker hit the ball on the volley from close range…somehow the ref gave a penalty for handball against Luke! Up stepped the Ingol left back who placed the ball sweetly towards Walshy’s top right hand corner, however, Walshy managed to get a hand to the ball and knock it too safety. A top class save which Gordon Banks would have been proud of. A cracking save from Lostock’s new Number 1. The game continued with Ingol applying pressure, another neat cross from the right, which bypassed Walshy and was finished by the Ingol striker, put the score at 3-1. The Lostock sideline encouraged the players not to sit back and to get stuck in. The next major incident during the game resulted in a fourth Lostock goal. Ingol tried and failed to pass the ball out from their own box from a goal kick, which Roddy pressured the centre half into a mistake and neatly slotted the ball to HORNBY who fired the ball home. 4-1. Surely it was game, set and match? Tat decided to take John Sanderson off and replace him with Steady. Steady was giving a great reception by the black and white army on his return to 1st team action. Ingol wouldn’t give up and managed to pull another goal back soon after. A long punt forward from their defence saw the Ingol striker chase down the ball, Walshy came rushing out and the striker nipped in before him and slotted the ball into an empty net with 10 mins left. 4-2. Gareth “Kebab” Littler then replaced Jamie who was struggling with cramp. With minutes remaining, Roddy skipped past the clueless Ingol right back for the millionth time and whipped in a delightful cross for KEBAB to “diving” head home and open his account for the season. 5-2. The game finished with the 3 pts needed and we now head into our LFA Quarter Final game against Greenlands in great spirits.

SCORERS:
Luke Atherton (1 min)
Sean Roddy (8 mins)
Damien Dashti (28 mins)
Chris Hornby (65 mins)
Gareth Littler (88 mins)

MOM:
Sean Roddy