Away v Brendon Bees

Result - Reddish North End 3 Brendon Bees 4

Team coach (James) views on the game:

A scoreline that in no way tells the story of a good game of football that both sides played their part in, spoiled somewhat by the poorest referee we have had this season. But I think however much I write I will still struggle to put into words how proud I was of the team today. On a very gooey pitch Reddish chose to kick into the wind first half and, with some players in unaccustomed positions, struggled a little at first although there was plenty of determination, which came more to the fore as we started to put some attacks together. From one of these, captain Callum Nightingale whacked home his first of the season, shooting over the keeper from the edge of the box. We had a couple of other decent attempts on goal which their keeper managed to scramble clear. 

Bees still had plenty of possession, however, and some slack defensive work gifted them an equaliser before the ref awarded them a free-kick after the ball had spun against Reece’ s arm when he lay on the floor. This was converted to give them a half-time 2-1 lead. Reddish started well and had two efforts just wide of the goal, but then we had our worst 10 minutes when we conceded a lot of possession and it cost us two goals, the second of which was flagged offside – but what can you do when the ref just ignores the flag and allows it? 

I was concerned that heads would go down but straight away we got some pressure on, and with their defence flapping the goalie booted a clearance straight at man-of-the-match Jamie, which deflected off him and into the net for 4-2. Then came some great football, as Callum got the ball and slotted a lovely weighted pass into Michael’s path. In turn he played in a wonderful first time low cross which the tireless Jamie swept home for the goal of the game. It really was brilliant to watch and well done Geoff for bringing his camcorder along to capture the action. Self-belief surged through the side and we continually pressed forward as time was pressing. Callum was denied what looked a stone-cold penalty after being tripped, then a corner which fell again to Callum, who unfortunately shot too high. When the final whistle went the Bees were visibly relieved. I said the referee was the poorest we have had this season and I stand by this. The Bees manager agreed with my assessment after the game that he had been far too diffident, not really establishing his authority and talking to the teams, as well as some truly bizarre decisions. A Bees player caught the ball and threw it back to one of our players, thinking play had been stopped – the ref meekly just said “play on” instead of awarding an obvious free kick. At half-time he told me he hadn’t seen the incident! Our keeper Callum sustained a blow to his head in the first half, bring caught by a Bees’ knee (!) in a 50-50 challenge, and Callum lay still and clearly hurt on the floor. I had to scream 3 times at the ref to draw his attention to the fact that there was a head injury, he seemed totally oblivious to it, which was very poor. Ignoring an offside flag and denying us a penalty were simply bad decisions, which summed up a dis-satisfying and inadequate performance. 

But my final comments are directed to my team, who made me so proud today as manager, played so very well with a lot of heart and scored one absolutely superb goal and two other decent ones. With some better finishing we would have taken something from the game, we certainly deserved to, and all the team should take great heart from an excellent effort. It’s four consecutive games now that we’ve scored three times, which is a massive step in the right direction, and we are creating chances, so things are looking good for a strong finish to the season. Next week is a home tie, a re-arranged cup game against Medlock Rangers.