| Despite the best efforts of the men in black - Curly, Larry and Mo - Nelson produced a fantastic display to deservedly win at Ramsbottom in the Second Round of the Lancashire FA Marsden Trophy. |
The final score was 3-2 in favour of the Blues, but could arguably have been 4-1, as Nelson had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside on half an hour while 1-0 up. Just two minutes later United equalised with a shot that came down off the crossbar, following which the loose ball was headed over. But the referee gave the goal after the ball was adjudged by the linesman to have been - precisely - two inches over the line, much to the amazement of both sets of players and fans alike.
Nelson had started brightly and took the lead after ten minutes following a great breakaway. A delightful ball split the defence down the right and found Craig Bradshaw. He came inside one man and, while the crowd looked for the obvious pass across the area to Andy Bennett, Bradshaw unleashed a shot over the goalkeeper's head and into the top left hand corner.
Before United's dubious equaliser, they had had a superb chance to equalise when Lee Buggie was sent through on goal, but his low shot deflected off keeper Billy Carrington and rolled narrowly wide of the left hand post. It was end to end stuff now, and the Blues too went close, forcing the home keeper to turn a lob shot onto his crossbar. But the teams went in level at the break, with the Nelson faithful bemoaning the bad luck at the hands of the men in black.
Ramsbottom created the first chance of the second period, and Billy Carrington had to palm Danny Goodall's shot onto the crossbar. But Nelson were a determined side, and seven minutes in they deservedly went ahead for a second time. Another well crafted move saw Bradshaw scooting down the right wing once more, and he floated a wonderful ball across the area beyond two backtracking defenders and into the path of Andy Bennett, who shot low into the centre of goal.
Ramsbottom then had a few minutes in the ascendency, and Lee Buggie struck his second goal nine minutes later to level matters once again. The defence fatally backed off him and allowed him to fire into the bottom left hand corner beyond the despairing dive of Carrington.
Back came Nelson though, and Bradshaw was the man to seal victory on 71 minutes. This time he received a through ball down the left and cut inside towards the edge of the penalty area before firing into the top right hand corner - an almost exact mirror image of his first.
United mounted a last ditch attempt to salvage something from the tie, but Carrington mopped up plenty of balls into the danger area. There was a scare in the last couple of minutes when a low cross-shot from Buggie fizzed across the six yard box but luckily just too far in front of a couple of United players.
When the final whistle went, the Nelson fans applauded a superb performance by their players against their higher division opponents. It was a well deserved victory and the Blues will now be hoping for a tie against one of the Conference sides through to the next round.
Lancashire F.A. Marsden Trophy results:
ACCRINGTON STANLEY (0) 5 - 2 (1) Fleetwood Town 2 (after extra time)
Bacup Borough v Bamber Bridge (to be played Wednesday night)
CHORLEY (?) 2 - 2 (?) Kendal Town (Chorley won 5-4 on penalties)
Clitheroe (1) 2 - 3 (0) MORECAMBE
LANCASTER CITY (0) 1 - 0 (0) Colne
RADCLIFFE BOROUGH (1) 3 - 0 (0) Blackpool Mechanics
Ramsbottom United (1) 2 - 3 (1) NELSON
Squires Gate (0) 1 - 3 (3) LEIGH RMI |
