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A deserved win for Hurdsfield - congratulations. They had most of the possenssion and chances.
Things could have been different, Ramsbottom had the better chances in the first half, Ashley Booth hit the inside of the post and Matt Coward went just wide when through on the keeper. No goals in the first half.
Hurdsfield scored early in the second. We thought he was offside but it was certainly too close to be critical of the ref. The Hursdfield forward finished it very nicely with a cleverly weighted chip.
Ramsbottom did very little attacking after half time and were under pressure for long periods. The second came with about 20 minutes remaining when we allowed a Hurdsield forward to lay the ball off, turn and take the return without being challenged. Poor defending but a tidy finish.
The pitch - which is usually dreadful if it's rained within the last 10 days - was excellent. The ref did well though (as it should be in our league) he had a pretty easy job.
Man of the match? Probably Hursdfield's number 6 "Jonny".
Charlie Owl
Good report from Six.
Hurdsfield always had the upper hand in this, with most of the attacking posession and chances, as well as defending well after the first 20 minutes or so. That said, Six quite rightly points out that the two best chances of a 0-0 first half fell to Ramsbottom. The second half was dominated by Hurdsfield with both goals coming in that phase of the match. But for all that dominance, at 0-0 and 0-1 Ramsbottom could still have nicked a result which kept the match competitive.
Hurdsfield probably should have scored more than the two goals, but poor/unlucky finishing and fully committed Ramsbottom defending for 90 minutes prevented that. For what it is worth, from my position on the sidelines I thought Neil was just in line (on-side) for the first goal.
The conduct of all the players was excellent. I didn't see or hear anything ill-tempered or unfriendly from any player. The referee (age 65 !) was excellent, probably the best I have seen in this league - although the conduct of all the players made it a pleasent run-out for him. He said he was off to referee an afternoon match in Leek in the North West Counties league. You could tell he was a referee of that standard - I don't quite know how Nick managed to get him for our match. I hope he got to Leek in time for the match.
The pitch was OK but still very soft and a bit soggy in places, despite mainly dry weather recently. So, I can see why Six would say it is usually dreadful - I am glad we didn't have to play that fixture in mid-winter !
Thanks to AFC Ramsbottom - Nick and all his players.
