Cheadle Town 1-0 Holker Old Boys

Ben Brooks' last-gasp penalty extended Cheadle Town's unbeaten run as another three points were collected over Holker Old Boys.

If Lady Luck exists, she was wearing a white-and-black scarf today. Holker Old Boys certainly had the better of the goalscoring opportunities (particularly in the first-half) and can count themselves somewhat unlucky not to be going into the interval with at least a 2-0 lead to their names.

On 14 minutes Steve McDonagh had to make a superb block from a green-shirted attacker who was put clean through and - if the resulting attempts on goal would have been on target - would have been helpless on 23 and 28 minutes as Holker found themselves in equally good scoring positions.

That said, we top-and-tailed the first period with chances: Joe Wood going just wide with just one minute gone and then Andy Lindon striking the crossbar with a cross-shot just before the break. We nearly uprooted the woodwork again with 5 minutes of the second half gone; Ben Brooks robbing a Holker defender in the penalty box but only finding the post instead of the net.

We limited Holker to just the one decent second-half chance on the hour mark when a shot was deflected and came back down off the crossbar; given that plus our difficulty in breaking the stubborn Holker defence down a 0-0 looked on the cards....

...until the 90th minute. Aaron Riley - who had done a sterling job as stand-in centre-back for the injuted Barry Cotterill, screwed his attacking head on for one last push, cut inside the penalty box from the left and was up-ended for his efforts. Ben Brooks stroked home the penalty, the referee blew his whistle from the re-start and a collective bead of sweat was wiped from the brows of all watching Cheadle-ites.

I alluded to it on Tuesday's match report but we'll take any scraps of luck that are being handed out at the moment as it is sure to even itself out at some point.

Not playing your best but still winning. Not a bad trait to have, that....

TEAM: S McDonagh, S Hall (Clarke), B Roberts, Riley, A Roberts, Whalley, D Brokenbrow, Lindon, J McDonagh (Clorley), Brooks, Wood (B Brokenbrow). Subs: Clarke, Clorley, B Brokenbrow.