Great Harwood suffer another league defeat following a frustrating and difficult encounter with Whalley Juniors.
Both teams started well and had chances to take an early lead, Joe Blackledge going narrowly over with a shot from the edge of the box and Jack Hargreaves hitting wide following a good solo run.
But it was Whalley who went ahead with a stunning strike from out wide on the right. Great Harwood tried to get back into the game but nothing was working and often the lads resorted to long balls for the forwards to chase. Whalley’s centre-backs were easily mopping these up and cleared every attempt with some ease.
In the second half we saw more of the same; the midfield of Whalley winning a large percentage of the ball and their defence comfortably dealing with any attack from the home side. Following a defensive mix-up Whalley extended their lead and the game was over soon after.
The lads really need to knuckle down now and start playing the football that won them the league last season. Confidence will return and we will start picking up points. A lot of players have had to make necessary positional changes this season which has obviously unsettled some of them.
Jack Hargreaves had a good game in the centre of midfield, then reverting to centre half. Man of the Match for the third game running was right back Danny Smith.
Next week sees a return to the Lancashire FA Cup; this 2nd round fixture sees the boys pitted against last season’s finalists South Shore FC who are storming their own league with 4 wins out of 4 and a hat-full of goals. We are certainly going to need to be at our best to get anything out of that game.
