AFC Liverpool 2-3 Atherton Collieries
AFC Liverpool’s hope of a third consecutive First Division Trophy success was not to be after Phil Williams’ goal in the first period of extra time meant that Atherton Collieries claimed the silverware.
Despite John Kennedy’s injury time penalty that took the game into an extra thirty minutes, it wasn’t enough as AFC Liverpool’s thirteenth game in the competition proved to be the unlucky one.
Returning to Valley Road, the home of Flixton FC and the scene of last year’s Trophy success, the Reds took the lead after only three minutes when Kennedy headed home from close range after Shaun Gardner’s cross came back off the crossbar.
They would have doubled their lead two minutes later had not Josh Harris got down quickly to save Kieran Quinn’s close range effort on the line but after an opening ten minutes where they were on the back foot, Atherton came back into the game and began to dominate possession, though without creating any real chances. The one opportunity they were given came on thirty two minutes and Paul Hynes took it in style, curling a free kick from twenty five yards into the corner.
The start of the second half was a tale of two free kicks that had remarkably different outcomes. Firstly Darren Torpey fired just wide from the corner of the box but a minute later, Hynes, from a similar position found the far corner to give his side the lead.
The Reds came back with a Joe Gibbons header that went straight into the arms of Harris and an attempted lob by Kennedy that never had the keeper in trouble. Harris was beaten but was saved by the woodwork when Daniel McGahon’s curling effort from just inside the box came cracking back off the post.
Hopes of another triumph that were rapidly fading away as the final whistle approached were quickly revived when Gardner was brought down in the box in injury time and when Kennedy coolly dispatched the spot kick belief was restored.
Into extra time the Colls retook the lead when a burst down the left into the box and a squared the ball across the face of the goal allowed Williams to slide in at the back post to bundle the ball over the line.
In response the Reds pumped the ball forward, never quite getting the rub of the greeen and the Colls defence rarely looked too troubled. Only Kennedy’s shot on the turn from the edge of the area which took the merest of deflections as it flashed over the bar was a cause of momentary concern. When McGahon fired straight at the keeper from the edge of the box from the resulting corner, you felt the chance to take the game to a penalty shoot out had passed and Atherton Collieries rode out the remaining minutes to claim their first First Division Trophy victory.
AFC Liverpool 2-3 Atherton Collieries
Kennedy 3′, 90′ (p) Hynes 32′, 51′, Williams 97′
Attendance: 209
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