Great Harwood started off their league campaign in the top division and were beaten by Brierfield Celtic 4-1.
Missing last season’s captain Jack Hargreaves and top scorer Connor Mahoney who were both trialling for professional contracts with Accrington Stanley FC, an opening fixture against the current Cup holders Brierfield Celtic was going to be a tough fixture and Brierfield took a commanding two goal lead early in the first half with close range finishes.
Great Harwood dug in and were almost back in the game as Joe Blackledge fired just wide after a good run down the left hand side. Approaching half-time Brierfield scored again to make it 3-0 to kill off the game as a contest.
Great Harwood came out for the second half with more commitment and started to win more of the ball in midfield; Dominic O’Brien starting to find his feet and tackling well and setting up several attacks for the home side. From one such attack, full back Danny Smith picked up the ball just inside Brierfield’s half and ran at the heart of the defence, out-pacing one defender and shrugging off another he was clean through on the impressive keeper to coolly slot the ball home into the far corner to reduce the deficit.
However, it was too little too late to get back into the match and a 4th goal was scored by Brierfield near the end of the game directly from a corner after sloppy defending left the scorer unmarked in the 6 yard box.
There was a lot of determination and effort put in by all the lads which pleased Manager Nigel Sutton. Dominic O’Brien, new captain Arron Phillipson, Joe Blackledge, Scott Sykes and George Carter all worked tirelessly and goalscorer Danny Smith was awarded Man of the Match.
