CROSSLEY BROTHER`S SAVE THE DAY FOR FALCON !
FALCON PINE FC 3
COPLEY 3
W.Crossley 2,Holroyd 1
Both teams observed a minutes silence to remember those who fought in both the
World Wars before embarking on their own mini battle at Savile Park.
Copley Town, promoted last season have struggled to make an impact to life so far
in division 2. However their opponents Falcon Pine had a terrible first 20 minutes and were deservedly two goals down in that
period.
Poor defensive play,allowed the Copley Town forward Jones to capitalise on a badly
cleared ball and put his side a goal up and shortly after Copley were awarded a riddiculous penalty as Scot Allinson was deemed
to have touched the ball despite being laid out on the floor following his tackle.Smith slotted the ball home with ease.
Falcon`s woes continued as several players were having an off day and after a complete
mix up at the back, Jones for Copley was allowed to head the ball home from a yard out.
But despite all this adversity and a very strong wind against them, Falcon`s fortunes
were to change as prolific scorer Wayne Crossley cooly slotted the ball away after good work from Callium Huggon who flicked
the ball on before Matthew Chapman provided the final pass to his ex- Siddal teammate to finish.
And shortly before halftime, Falcon Pine legend Matt Holroyd was set up from Crossley
to score past the stranded Copley keeper. But Falcon were still not content with giving Copley scoring opportunities as they
yet again pressed the self destruct button as young Sam Rowe made a hash of a simple situation to allow Smith through on goal
and it was only the goal keeping skills of Dean Crossley that kept the scores to 2-3.
After the interval, Dean Crossley was to become the rock that Falcon needed to
restore their battered confidence as he set about a one man show of defiance against the rampant Copley forwards who time
and time again had opportunities gifted to them. This culminated with a superb one handed save from a penalty by Smith which
was controversally awarded for another handball, this time it was Lee Midgely who had the ball blasted at his face and instinctively
protected his face with his hands and therefore the penalty was awarded but it was a 50 - 50 decision.
Justice seemed to have been done when Crossley made his heroic save.
The penalty save,along with some strong challenges from captain Stephen Scholey
and player manager Bob Bartle seemed to galvanise Falcon into starting to finally play to their ability and when Falcon scored
the equaliser it was inevitable that Wayne Crossley was going to be on the end of it as he scored a fine solo goal to make
it 3-3.
And for the last 2o minutes it was all one way traffic as Pine bombarded the Copley
goal, through efforts from Holroyd, Bartle, Bailey and Crossley but most of these chances were squandered, Holroyd and Bartle
being the main culprits as open goals were missed.
3-3 was the final score and probably a fair result as Falcon were 0-3 down , although
they will still go away feeling that with better finishing and better defending as well as a few more decisions going their
way then they would have put this game to bed and gained the 3 points.
