Birkdale United AFC

 

A glorious afternoon for football as the season drew to a close with a play-off for the league title, both sides having ended the season level on 29 points.

 

The first half was very tight with neither side able to break the deadlock and few clear cut chances.   Birkdale’s best chance of the half fell to Rawsthorne but his shot went just over the bar.

 

Six minutes into the second half, Birkdale finally went ahead when Jackson latched on to a through ball and fired over the advancing keeper.

 

The lead lasted for only four minutes when Formby equalised following a corner that came back off the back post and was knocked into the net.

 

The game continued to ebb and flow but neither side were able to score again, although Birkdale squandered a number of chances to win the game including blazing a shot over the bar from less than six yards and also hitting the bar, and Formby nearly stole the win five minutes from time when Knight pulled off a great save low to his right to deny the advancing forward.

 

So, into extra time, and again a stalemate which meant the result was going to be decided by penalties.   The tension was mounting, well at least for the parents!

 

Formby won the toss and decided to make Birkdale go first.

 

Jackson took the first penalty and scored, 1 – 0.

Knight saved the first Formby penalty diving low down to his left.

 

Pike took the second penalty and scored, 2 – 0.

 

Formby missed their second penalty wide of the left hand post.

 

Young took the third penalty and scored, 3 – 0.

 

Formby scored their third penalty into the top left hand corner, 3 – 1.

 

Williams stepped up to take the decisive penalty and scored, 4 – 1.

 

A fantastic result for Neil Williams and the team, success in his first season as manager, and a great present on his birthday, well done to everyone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Match Reports 08/09. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.