Forthcoming Fixtures

It was very much a backs to the wall job for City as they consolidated their lead at the top of the league, with a narrow 1-0 victory away at Blackburn, which went some way to extracting revenge for their 2-4 home defeat earlier in the season

The only goal of the game came on the hour mark when Alex Henshalls's cross from the left was sliced home by a Blackburn defender

As usual as City travel up the M66 and beyond to Blackburn the weather is always on the leveller side with wind and rain playing a part and today was no exception as the bogginess of the sidelines are there to testify but the playing surface being far better drained.

City fielded a slightly younger side due to the Lancashire Senior cup reserve game away at Blackpool on Monday afternoon with Courtney Meppen-Walters and Jordi Hiwula not included and City unable to field any forwards or defenders on the bench.

Early on Blackburn could have been the team that broke the deadlock as a ball in the area was not fully cleared in the eleventh minute and the player shot from the edge of the area and it wildly deflected from the right sideand headed for the left corner of the goal with the ever impressive Angus Gunn left completely stranded but fortunately the ball cannoned of the face of the post and was cleared away.

Just a couple of minutes later and it was the Blackburn goalkeeper that was clearing the ball away from under the crossbar after a cross by Alex Henshall from the left after a good work down the wing and his cross was deflected and took a looping trajectory towards the top corner to force the good save.

Again it was Alex Henshall who was looking bright down the left and he worked his way down the flank with the ball before cutting inside and exchanging passes with Albert Rusnak before setting himself and firing a good left foot low strike through a crowd of players that the goalkeeper tipped behind for a corner.

City continued to press but Blackburn were looking dangerous themselves but their shooting was very similar to City’s first team at Sunderland and there was also a real bit of class from Angus Gunn as just as he did at Nottingham Forest earlier in the season he pulled off a Pat Jennings’ move of plucking a cross out of the air with one hand; take a bow son.

The second half and City started the half with some purpose again as captain George King tuned away from his tight marker to create space to run into where he played the ball forward for Devante Cole to turn away from his marker and he ran into the area but his shot was poor as he dragged it wide.

City then made a change by bringing Louis Hutton on for King and almost immediately the change resulted in a change of fortunes for City as a short corner was cleared back out but City worked it back in on the left and Rusnak played in Henshall who pushed into the box where he fired a powerful driven cross that the Blackburn defender could only deflect past his own goalkeeper for an own goal.

City did try to hit Blackburn on the break as the home side pushed them back towards their own penalty area but City were a bit wasteful of the chances they were creating and so they were putting more pressure on a defence that have not played with each other too much this season but despite this all five of them played their part by all of them making very good last gasp challenges to deny Blackburn and put their heads on nearly every high ball and cross.

That one nil victory means City pull eight points clear of Blackburn and keep themselves in the hunt at the top of the group with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool who beat Crewe one nil today.



Team:

Gunn, Coulson, Plummer, Leigh, Smith Brown, Evans, Drury, King, (Hutton 55), Cole, Rusnak, Henshall

Subs:

Halsall(GK), Glendon, Clowes

The under 16's also had a good start to the new year with a 2-1 victory (Goals from Kean Bryan & Marco Lopez), with keeper Ian Lawlor making his first appearance in four months following a back injury