[choirboy]

A 2-0 victory over Brizzle Rovers today was a really important result and a great performance by the boys in red!
We started really well with new boy Aaron Pressley fitting in superbly and making his presence felt. Good in the air, laying good flick ons to Sean Whalley, skilful on the floor and showing a good turn of speed, control and passing technique. The lad was looking like a ‘perfect fit’ for the current needs of our team. Then the injury hoodoo struck again with Aaron limping off with a foot injury. He tried to run through it but inevitably he had to be substituted.
We should have gone one up when Sean Whalley out paced the Brizzle defenders and he chipped the advancing keeper well but hit the post!
0-0 at half time seemed a bit harsh on Stanley especially as our opponents were wasting time from the start clearly indicating that they would have been satisfied with a draw before the kick off!
We continued on the front foot straight from the restart and got our well deserved goal with Rodgers physical presence allowing Tommy Leigh to score.
Further injury misery for Stanley came when captain Seamus Coneelly pulled up with a hamstring pull and had to be replaced by the recovering Doug Tharme. Doug settled in well and Rovers looked even less like scoring form then on. Ryan Astley had been quietly having a very efficient game doing everything right and I was really pleased for him to earn the MOTM Award when he scored the very important second goal. Fully deserved IMHO.
The Clayton End once again were absolutely superb and sang and cheered throughout the ninety plus minutes.
The referee was somewhat inconsistent in his interpretation of the laws of the game and both of his assistants were ‘spare parts’.
Overall a fantastic result for the Stanley but post match there are more anxieties on the injury front.