Following last weeks demolition of Elton and Walshaw the lads know that a tougher task awaited as this week sees the return fixture with Higher Blackley Rebels. Only 2 weeks ago Unsworth battled to a hard earned draw against the only other team in the league that could end up Champions of the C division.

Both Unsworth and Blackley hold unbeaten records so would today see either record go, or would the stalemate continue? Only after 60 minutes of hard football would the outcome be revealed.

With the full squad to pick from John and Danny had some difficult choices to make in picking the starting 11. Every player deserves a start and it was only after some serious deliberations did we see the final 11 on the pitch. The back 4 looks settled but with every spot on the pitch being contended Kain got the nod over Alex who if he’d been on time might have made the starting team.

Jake slotted into the middle with Dom on the right and Dec to the left. Up front saw Tom and Charlie again getting the nod. This was one of the tough decisions to make as Khol and Joe deserve a start and this will take place next week.

The game kicked off and the Blackley team looked up for it right from the off. Time and again they won the ball and with a bigger physical presence they started to take control of the game. Most of the Blackley team look very skilful and with what appears a well regimented team they looked the more likely to go ahead. Unsworth were under constant pressure and on more than one occasion Unsworth lacked a little composure and where an extra touch might have helped the ball was knocked up the park and back to the Blackley defence to start pushing again.

That said the lads were battling hard and whilst Blackley looked threatening, the home team continued to mount their own counter attacks. Blackley were themselves under pressure as the Unsworth midfield managed to release Charlie to break away only to see a well worked effort slip wide of the post. In the previous game Unsworth could and should have killed the game off in the first half but struck the ball at the home keeper too many times rather than finding the corner. Would the same happen and Unsworth end up looking back on the missed opportunities?

Most of the play was in the middle of the park and John made a tactical change removing Jake and linking up Liam with Mason. This could possibly see a little more skill but with less physical presence . Would this pay off or would Blackley make the most of this? In reality neither as the Blackley lads were working harder than Unsworth and with the ball being cleared again out of the Unsworth box it fell to a Blackley midfielder who swung the mighty boot and let fly. It wasn’t what you would call a screamer more of an up and under, but it flow very high towards the Unsworth goal and Ethan could only claw at this above his head as it dipped in to make it one nil to the visitors.

Unsworth knew they were in a real fight and unless everyone battled then the visitors looked the most likely to leave Fortress Hillock with the 3 points.

Unsworth did fight and another through ball saw Tom break away and with his pace steam towards the Blackley net, 1-1 surely, but again the effort was dragged wide. Would the missed chances be the difference, probably!

The turning point of the game was in what was left of the first half, and it seemed in one way to galvanise the remaining players to pull together, but at the same time it also caused a possible rift with others. Only at break time on Monday at school may this become evident. Ethan who so far this season has progressed from a reasonable keeper into probably the best in the league, and who had earlier taken the pressure off the home team on more than one occasion with collecting a number of crosses made what some of the team though was the wrong call. Blackley put in another cross from the right and on this occasion Ethan decided to punch the ball away and not catch. The clearance wasn’t the strongest and with a few missed headers in defence making the situation worst Blackley punished the home teams failings and made it two nil.

Some of the team vented their frustrations and a few shouts of “why did you not catch it!” were heard. Whether these were shouts of frustration from team mates or direct criticism what happened next was explosive. Ethan decided enough was enough and stormed off the pitch closely followed by his Dad Neil and John chasing behind. As a goalie of old “John the Cat” has many memories of howlers he made during his not so illustrious career. Most of these were likely to have been caused by a hangover from the previous evenings entertainments but unfortunately Ethan can’t use this excuse. Whether Ethan should have caught or punched can only be decided by one person, Ethan. He made what he though was the right decision and no one can disagree with that. Whether he made a mistake is debatable but we all know that the resulting strop should not have happened. I know from Ethan’s parents that Saturday afternoon in the Robinson household would have been an interesting one for a fly on the wall. Ethan, all I can say is that if you want to be a goalie its one of the hardest positions on the pitch. You are a great goalie but you have to make sure that you can enjoy the good times when you make a great save but you will have to grow broader shoulders and take the knocks when its not so good. I don’t think any of the shouts were directly at Ethan but just boys showing that they care about football and that when they lose a goal it hurts. Lets hope Ethan is back for next Saturday.

With the proverbial spanner in the works Luke donned the quickly recovered gloves from Ethan as Dom yet again moved back to right back. Losing our goalie was going to make things harder but the boys rallied and worked harder for the remainder of the half but as the ref blow for half time it remained two nil to the visitors.

The team talk at half time was simple. Compete more, fight harder and work for each other as a team should, and to be fair the boys did just that. Khol and Joe had replaced Tom and Charlie up front and with the defence working hard the pressure was all on the away team. Time and again the Unsworth forwards broke but on every occasion could not make the pressure pay. With more battling this half it looked likely that if we could keep it tight it would only be a matter of time before we were back in the game but it was not to be. On one of the rare occasions when Blackley threatened in the Unsworth half a free kick was awarded around 25 yards out. Unsworth looked a little unsure but if we could defend the ball we might get away with it. Unfortunately not, as the direct ball into the box could not be gathered by the stand in keeper and the resulting follow up made it 3-1 and it looked very much game over.

To be fair Unsworth never gave up and continued to press with John switching to 4-3-3 the pressure was on and it finally paid off with a lot of effort and closing down from Tom meaning we were back in the game, 3-1. The ref said there was 9 minutes to go at this point so we still had a chance but with the home team focusing on the opposition goal the sucker punch was delivered with a physical tussle being lost by the Unsworth defence making sure the game was over as Blackley slotted home the fourth. Final score was Unsworth 1, Blackley 4.

The first defeat of the season and what a bitter pill to swallow, but to be honest we were beaten by the better team. They were stronger and more importantly wanted it more and worked for each other as a team. We now have to rely on Blackley slipping up if we stand a chance to be crowned champions. Next week sees Unsworth look to get back to winning ways as we travel to Ramsbottom. This team are new to the league and we need to be very careful as they are the only other team to take a point from Blackley so the team need to be up for it.

Lets remember that everyone makes mistakes and normally more than 1 per game. If the centre forward misses a chance he didn’t mean to, if the centre half misses a header he probably didn’t mean to and if the goalie punches instead of catches it and this results in a goal he didn’t mean it either. Remember we need all 16 of you to pull together and support each other on and off the pitch. Lets make sure that next week we do all we can and show to everyone what a good TEAM we are.

Danny is taking training on Tuesday so see you Saturday.