Burscough vs 1874 Northwich

Recap

1874 remain top of the North West Counties Premier Division after a comfortable 2-0 away win over Burscough. Once again Jake Parker and Scott McGowan were the difference as they have been all season to make sure we took home all three points.

The game started with a golden opportunity for Burscough to take the lead against the league leaders however Joseph Fielding squandered his chance as his shot went wide of the post. Soon after 1874 were ahead. A great ball across the box by Callum Gardner found an unmarked Scott McGowan who headed home to give 1874 the lead seven minutes in.

1874 came close to doubling their advantage as a thunderbolt from Mike Koral from 25 yards out cannoned back off the crossbar and Nathan Okome couldn’t finish off the rebound leaving the scores still at 1-0 to the visiting 1874.

For the mid part of the first half it was a similar story to most of the season so far, 1874 were on top and dominating possession. Harry Cain and Callum Gardner were causing the Burscough full backs all sorts of problems as they were being stretched on either side, but neither could quite put in the perfect cross to double the lead.

However, just before the half time whistle, Harry Cain managed to do so. A good piece of play from him found Jake Parker’s deflected shoot looped over David Jones and gave 1874 a 2-0 lead going into the half time break.

1874 kept the pressure on after the restart, keeping the Burscough backline camped firmly in their own half. The story of the second half however came through a superb goalkeeping display from David Jones in the Burscough net. A floated corner came found its way into the six-yard box and Matt Woolley’s header was tipped over the bar incredibly from point blank range.

1874 came close to making it three shortly after but a header from Ryan Mitchell sailed over the cross bar. Jones again came to the rescue for Burscough with a double save after Sam Hare and Matt Woolley couldn’t extended the lead. However, arguably his best save came from a driven effort from Jake Parker whose effort was stopped thanks to Jones’ excellent reflex’s as he managed to keep the scores at 2-0 at full time.

After the game 1874 co-manager Wayne Goodison was delighted with the performance of Matt Woolley, “You need someone in the team like Matt on a day like today when the conditions aren’t great. We’ve got some great leaders and a nice trio of Matt Woolley, Ryan Mitchell and Mark Jones, it’s good to have them on games like this.