Division 3 Higher Ince Away

This certainly was a game of two halves, in the first half Higher Ince looked the team more likely to score as Amberswoods midfield looked sluggish and out of sorts and the defence were tested time and time again, but it was Amberswood who struck first, when a long clearance from goalkeeper Danny Hilton found Dean Ainscough on the right hand side, he slid the ball through for Craig Gilligan to run onto and place the ball past the advancing goalkeeper and into an empty net. Then within two minutes Amberswood found themselves a goal down after Higher scored two goals in a minute as the amberswood midfield stood off the Higher Ince midfield and allowed them to pick a pass out, the Higher Ince midfield floated a perfect pass over the top of the Amberswood defence into the path of the onrushing striker who slotted the ball past the helpless goalkeeper Danny Hilton. Goalkeeper Danny Hilton also had no chance of the second goal as Higher Ince got more confident they started to attack in numbers and pile the pressure on, and when a Higher Ince midfielder received the ball on the edge of the box, he struck a shot, that took a wicked deflection off an Amberswood defender and looped over goalkeeper Danny Hilton and into the net. Craig Gilligan should have equalised for Amberswood before half time when he was put clean through again but struggled to get control of the ball and allowed the Higher Ince defence to get back and put a challenge in before he could get his shot away.

At half time manager Phil Atherton had some harsh words to say to the midfield to try and make them compete for the ball, and when the second half started Amberswood seemed to get tighter to the opposition, but when Dean Ainscogh fouled the Higher Ince left winger, Amberswood fell asleep as the free kick was about to be taken, the defence and midfield turned their back on the ball and Higher Ince took full advantage and took a quick free kick, putting the ball over the Amberswood defence and into the path of the striker who slotted the ball home for Higher Ince's third goal.

Amberswood manager Phil Atherton decided to make a double substitution and change in formation as he substituted a centre forward and a centre midfielder and put an attacking midfielder on and a defensive midfielder on to tighten up a with this change, Amberswood started to attack more and more and had chance after chance as Payam Doustani had a goalbound effort charged down in agoalmouth scramble to get the ball away, Craig Gilligan had another opportunity, but put it wide and John Warburton who caused them problems all game, had two headers which he put over the bar. Carl Stocks had a couple of long range efforts, and with about ten minutes to go Amberswood scored a second as Payam Doustani played the ball to Craig Gilligan in the right channel, he put the ball across the face of goal to the incoming and unmarked John Warburton to slot the ball into an empty net. With a limited amount of time Amberswood manager tried to get the message across for his team to get the ball forward quickly in search of an equaliser, but Amberswood failed to get past the half way line and Higher Ince held out for the win.

Final Score Higher Ince 3 Amberswood 2

Man Of The Match: Dean Ainscough worked tirelessley in centre midfield in the second half and supplied the through ball for Amberswoods opening goal.