After the rain overnight meant we required a pitch inspection, the grass was wet and long and the pitch very soggy so a late change to Deansgate and St Helens were surprised at how good the pitch was.
St Helens started quickly and Caleb was forced into an early save. Formby the grew in confidence and started moving the ball better, Jack Yarwood's cross was caused panic and the 6'ft + centre back headed into the ball into his own net .
Within a couple of minutes Jack pounced on some poor defending to steal the ball and slot it past the keeper.
Jack was on fire and very soon after pounce on a poor back pass and again beat the keeper to take a 3 goal lead.
St Helens in fairness responded well and clawed a goal back with a good individual goal, they soon added a 2nd and a 3rd to level it up at 3-3. It remained this scoreline till Half time.
Half time we asked what was going well, what we need to improve on, the lads appeared really focused. This was a game they knew was there for the taking.
The 2nd half we started quickly, An early corner caused panic and Dominic was pushed over to earn a penalty, with Sam off the pitch I called for Elliot to come up to take it, He struck it sweetly and although the keeper got a hand to it he couldn't stop it. 2nd half was a really tight affair and both teams had chances, Sam pulled off a good save as did their keeper from Kieran's shot. St Helens drew level again with another individual goal and a well struck shot. 4-4 with just over 10 minutes to go. Both sides were pressing and going for the win with a couple of half chances each way. Formby defended resolutely and then had a quick break, the ball was played to Sam, he ran with the ball from the half way line, positioning himself well to prevent the tackle coming and just as he looked like he was about to shoot the defender shoved him in the back. Was it a pen, No just outside the box. We all know who we want on these, yet again Sam held his nerve floating a ball over the wall and into top left corner, amazing strike to regain the lead. 4 mins to go, needed to be solid and see the game out, to be fair they held onto the ball well kept going forwards and St helens hardly got a touch other than to put the ball out.
Full Time whistle and best result of the season in also the best game to Win 5-4.
Loads of nominations for man of the match, Jack with 2 goals and an assist, solid defending for Elliot and Jonny, Jacob made a difference today and Sam with his Free Kick, awarded it jointly today to Sam and Jack both exceptional.
For me the most pleasing thing was the attitude of every single player today, all were really focused and up for the game which was a pleasure to manage today, Thanks all and well done, lets do this every week now ??