Cheadle Town 3-3 Kirkham and Wesham

Cheadle Town had to make do with sharing the points again in this six-goal thriller at Park Road.

After an unremarkable start the game got its first goal after 9 minutes. A lofted shot was sailed over Mellor's head which cracked off the top of the crossbar. The referee decreed that the Cheadle 'keeper had touched it despite Mellor's protests. Sod's Law then kicked in as Kirkham bundled in a goal from the resulting corner kick.

Up until then Cheadle were second to everything and a defeat looked on the cards even at that stage of the match. The Kirkham goal lit a fire under Cheadle's backsides as we suddenly woke up with a few good passages of play and a bit of pressure on the Kirkham defence.

On 23 minutes Cheadle put together a lovely move that fell to Arron Riley who perhaps should have pulled the trigger a little earlier. On 35 minutes Cheadle's pressure paid off with the equaliser. The ball was punted forward and Matty Smith collected Arron Riley's flick-on and slotted home. Half-time, 1-1.

A second half that didn't see many chances fall to either side suddenly burst into insane life on the hour mark. A cross from the right was met by Matty Smith on the left who slid the ball across the face of the net; Barry Cotterill had the easy task of tapping in to give Cheadle a deserved lead. But just as they did on Wednesday evening, Cheadle surrendered their lead within a couple of minutes. A cross from the Kirkham left was met with a header that Mellor could do nothing about.

A minute later and Cheadle were awarded a penalty; MacDonald coolly side-footing home to hand the advantage back to Cheadle.

The madness calmed down after that but the only trouble was that Cheadle, now in the lead, couldn't keep possession. I said to Polardin that "this game had another goal in it yet", and so it proved with just nine minutes remaining when Kirkham successfully converted a penalty.

Kirkham found themselves in a game today, dropping their first league points and conceding their first league goals of the season. To all the other teams out there, you may walk away from Park Road with a result, but by Christ we'll make you work hard for it....

Big blog hellos to Scott Clarke's mum who we know is a regular reader...and who proved to be a wealth of knowledge on all things Cheadle this afternoon and to that Liverpudlian chap who has recently moved to the Cheadle area and brought his son to watch his local football team. Good on you!

Pictures from the day can be seen by clicking here

TEAM: Mellor, Clarke (P Riley), Hussain, Cotterill, A Roberts, Brocklehurst, A Riley, MacDonald, Smith, Myers, Carpenter (Lindon). Subs: B Roberts, Flanagan, P Riley, Lindon