Ashton Athletic 5-0 Cheadle Town

A four-goal salvo in the first-half did the damage as Cheadle slumped to a 0-5 reversal at Brocstedes Park.

Ashton Athletic set their stall out early and reaped the benefit of a two-goal lead within the first quarter-of-an-hour of the match. The header that smashed off O'Keefe's crossbar after just 3 minutes didn't seem to matter once Ashton Athletic had taken their lead just six minutes later; Sam Hall lost possession in midfield, the ball was fed through to a (suspiciously offside) forward who rounded O'Keefe and slotted home.

On the 15 minute mark, the lead was doubled. Athletic kept the ball alive on the byline and crossed it from the right where it was seized upon on the edge of the box and slammed home.

For the next 27 minutes Cheadle started to very slowly but very surely get a foot on the ball and earn themselves a bit of much-needed possession. Granted this didn't create any effective clear-cut chances for us, but it did mean that the utter tonking that Athletic looked like giving us was being halted in its tracks....

...until a two-minute period just before half-time. On the 43rd minute a free-kick was whipped in from the left and freely nodded in from a couple of yards out, with an identical header ending up the same way just two minutes later thus giving Athletic an unassailable four-goal advantage.

With the game lost, Trevor told the players to "win the second half". They may not have done that where goals were concerned - Ashton Athletic got their fifth on the 75th minute - but they certainly would have won the percentage possession stats. Cheadle also crafted a couple of chances in this period and all: a nice move saw Scott Flanagan's resulting shot excellently palmed away by the 'keeper on the hour mark and perhaps our substitute should have done better than blasting over the bar when ten yards out.

If this match would have started at 8.30pm then I might have been reporting on a narrower defeat...or even a draw. Could have, would have, should have - that's football for you....

Pictures from the evening can be seen by clicking here

TEAM: O'Keefe, Clarke, B Roberts, Logan, A Roberts, Fellows (Gittens), Hall, Myers, Flanagan, Smith, Brokenbrow. Subs: Gittens