COLFC Reserves travelled to Northwood in Kirkby for their 2nd Round match in the LFCA Junior Cup against AFC Kirkby this afternoon.
Manager Tom O'Hanlon was able to pick a similar side to the one who celebrated The Young Purps' first ever league win last week as they took on a very physical team who ply their trade in Division 2 of the Liverpool County Premier League.
Team
1-Cavanagh 2-Chojnicki 3-McParland 4-Murray 5-Lam 6-Slevin 7-McLoughlin 8 Morris 9-Phillips 10-Haskell 11-Morgan
Subs
Pendleton, Cowling, Dalzell-Cain
The home side started off well and they were putting themselves about, however, 3 late tackles went unpunished and their physical aspect of the game was there to see from the offset.
COLFC Reserves came back into the game and on 21 minutes the ball broke to young McLoughlin on the edge of the box, and he gracefully fired his shot into the corner of the net. 0-1 in favour of the young purps.
Less than a minute later and the Ressies increased their lead. Ryan Morgan showed some excellent skill as he danced past 4 AFC Kirkby defenders and scored with a beautiful finish to put Tom's boys 0-2 up.
It was at this point that the flow and tempo of the game changed. The home team players started shouting how the game was over for them, and how they were going to 'do' the young purps. Clearly this worried some of our young lads and the tackles from the home side started flying as their play became much more aggressive. A two footed tackle on Paddy Slevin caused a scuffle and the referee, who was about 17, rightly produced a red card. The hosts were now reduced to 10 men.
HT AFC Kirkby 0-2 COLFC Reserves
Due to the home sides physically aggressive play, manager Tom O'Hanlon brought off Haskell and replaced him with Pendleton, however, the Ressies just stopped playing football in the second half.
AFC Kirkby, after their verbal threats and awful tackles were now playing a thug style of football, and this affected the confidence and ability of the young purps. 2 quick goals for the home side brought the tie level, and our players heads began to rapidly drop.
A fantastic strike for AFC Kirkby put them 3-2 up and produced a great comeback for the home side. Game over..... Or was it?
The Young Purps hadn't given up, and Paddy Slevin finished off after some great work by Hilton to level the match up at 3-3
Just as it seemed the match was heading into extra time, AFC Kirkby broke forward and their striker was tripped. A soft free kick somehow crept over the line and Boom, the game was over.
FT AFC Kirkby 4-3 COLFC Reserves
Manager Tom O'Hanlon expressed how proud he was of his young players today. For the majority of the lads it was their second game playing together at a team and he was pleased they worked and fought hard.
Tom said "We won't play a team like this in our league, but credit to them, they showed us how to play horrible intimidating football. It's a lesson learnt, but we should have really kicked on and won the game. A cloudy day all round, but we win together and we lose together. We move on now, so let's build, consolidate and focus on moving up the league"
COLFC Reserves MOTM - Paddy Slevin
