Arbories Memorial Sports Ground Saturday, October 24th, 2020 k/o 15:05   North West Counties Premier Attendance: 270         Padiham 0-2 1874 Northwich
2020 /21

Comments :

Rain rain go away.... After trying to judge the advice on travel between one tier 3 lockdown area and another tier 3 area i was none the wiser. One of the other games i considered Trafford v Widnes made it clear on their website the didn''t want that to happen so fair play but otherwise it was clear as mud. Opted to come here and arrived early as usual and had my temperature checked before entering at a cost of £6. During the warm ups the heavens opened as the rain persisted for the entire 90minutes particularly torrential during the first half. Presumably this was the cause for the delayed kick off as it transpired on their way onto the pitch for kick off the home keeper had slipped in the changing rooms and hurt his ankle (rumours of a possible break abounded) It also transpired they didn''t have a back up keeper and centre half Luke McKenna was keeper for the day. Despite the set back Padiham started brightly and forced a decent save from the away keeper, at the other end McKenna initially looked out of his depth with an unconventional save with his foot before being left helpless by a tap in at the back post attributed to dopple ganger Harry Cain, neither keeper would be tested again during the half. I had chosen a front row seat in the main stand leaving me open to the elements but with no one else daft enough to sit near me, the only draw back was the constant run of people bringing alcohol from the bar or the half dozen kids playing up bored running around which was very annoying. The second half was a bit niggly with lots of free kicks, most to the annoyance of the home fans went the way of the visitors culminating in a red card about five minutes from time. The rain had my phone playing up opening up video and making ghost calls which drained(to keep in the weather vain of the day) my battery and whilst trying to activate power saving mode i missed Northwich''s second goal. It was a game in which defences were on top and apart from one decent save from the stand in keeper saves were not required