Cheadle Town 1-2 Blackpool Mechanics

A last-minute goal kept up Blackpool Mechanics' decent away record and condemned Cheadle Town to their third consecutive defeat.

Cheadle Town were back to full-strength, a matter that was shown by the number of chances that they managed to garner throughout the game. The first of these fell on the 11th minute when Arron Riley latched onto a flick and bore down on goal only to see his effort superbly saved by the Mechs' 'keeper.

Arron had another carbon-copy chance saved on 27 minutes and then proved instrumental in Cheadle's opener just a minute later. Andy Lindon seized on a poor goal-kick and lofted the ball into the box for Arron who just managed to beat the 'keeper to the ball and poke it around him; with the 'keeper somewhat stranded Arron kept his cool to pop the ball into the box for Deano to volley home from two yards out.

Before half-time Blackpool started to haul themselves back into the match. On 44 minutes their big lummox No.9 flew a shot just across the face of Mellor's posts. Half-time, 1-0 to Cheadle.

The second half got off to a blistering start with Cheadle having a glorious chance to extend their lead; how Arron Riley, Carl Buchanan and Deano didn't manage to make more of the three-on-one opportunity they had will probably still be haunting them now. Just two minutes later and Blackpool blasted a great chance over the bar from just six yards out.

Blackpool's eventual victory could be granted to their 'keeper as he superbly kept out Carl Buchanan and Deano with fingertip saves. His efforts were to be rewarded on 67 minutes as the visitors' ever-increasing graft got themselves level. A cross from the right was buried past Mellor's outstretched left arm.

After that, Cheadle's chances simply dried up. Blackpool kept applying the pressure, should have gone 2-1 up on 80 minutes when twqo of their forwards only had Mellor to beat and then eventually did go 2-1 up with just a minute remaining when two of their forwards beat an offside claim, leaving one of them all the time in the world to lash a left-footed shot past Mellor.

Today's defeat was made worse by seeing Carl Buchanan being carried off with suspected knee ligament damage (pictured below). We wish him a speedy recovery.


Cheadle had their chances to put this game out of sight today but found themselves in wasteful mood. One positive from the day was seeing the squad back to full-strength...and being able to get home an hour earlier than usual. I could get used to these 2pm kick-offs....

Pictures from today can be seen by clicking here

TEAM: Mellor, Heath, B Roberts, Cotterill, A Roberts, Brocklehurst, Riley, MacDonald, Lindon, Martin, Buchanan (Hussain). Subs: Myers, Hussain, Flanagan