Padiham 5-0 Cheadle Town

Cheadle's return to footballing action was met by this thorough beating at the hands of Padiham.

Right from the first minute to the ninetieth, Padiham had this game in their grip. The fact that this was probably the worst Cheadle performance we've seen all season shouldn't take anything away from Padiham - they were well-organised, well-disciplined and richly deserved their three points today.

The tone of the afternoon was set after just five minutes when ex-Cheadle midfielder Damien Morrison was put clean through on the Cheadle net to poke home. I told you he'd score, didn't I?

Cheadle then started to put some hard graft together which resulted in a lovely move that was unfortunately capped by a rather weak shot from Deano. When Heathy fell awkwardly and had to come off, Cheadle's bad start to the match wasn't made any better.

On 25 minutes a Padiham free-kick from the left was sent over and met by a thumping header at the far post for their second goal. Five minutes later and one of their forwards hit the woodwork when put clean through. The hammering that had - at that point - looked on the cards looked more like a reality when, on the stroke of half-time, Massey failed to come for a cross and Padiham bundled in their third of the match. Half-time, 3-0 Padiham.

The small patches of good play that Cheadle put together in the first half deserted them for the second as the Padiham 'keeper had very little to do and The Storks ran in another two goals. A lobbed effort over Massey's head on 62 minutes and a far-post header on 70 minutes.

All the positives from today were to do with Padiham. We were impressed with the setup they have at the Arbories Memorial Ground, it was probably the friendliest place we had been to all season and they played the better football. There is one saving grace from the day, I suppose - at least Vinnie Braine didn't score against us when he came on....

Roll on Darwen at home on the 21st....

TEAM: Massey, Brokenbrow, B Roberts, Heath (Lee), Logan, Brocklehurst, Riley, Hussain (Renshaw), McDonagh, Martin, Lindon. Subs: Renshaw, Lee, Smith (GK)