Match Reports

10-man Haydock sink sorry Newton!

With Newton coasting after 15mins with a very comfortable
2-0 lead, it was at this very point that they lost this game. As much as Newton went off the boil, so a very determined and depleted Haydock side simply roared back to take a strangle hold of this match!

It had all started so well for the visitors as within 2mins a straightforward shot suddenly took a vicious bounce on the hard surface and shot through the home keepers’ hands and into the net! More soon followed as Newton were finding their players with ease and after 10mins their same striker notched a second as he latched on to a rebound to ease the ball home.At 2-0 Newton looked like commanding this one throughout and when the same striker hit a good shot only to see it strike the bar and away to safety, it did not seem to matter. How wrong we were!

The referee who it has to be said had a very poor game throughout then let play go on for Haydock when two of their front runners were so far offside they might as well have joined the other game going on! Play did continue and one of them rounded the keeper and at 2-1 Newton then began to noticeably wobble! So much so that 50/50 balls were being lost and Haydock visibly grew in stature.

All this with only ten men and when they equalised minutes from halftime with a goal against a scrambling Newton rearguard every Haydock player seemed to get a lift.
Newton were the opposite! They were simply shell-shocked at halftime with the score reading 2-2.

As so often this season, things got decidedly worse immediately into the second half.

It was a goal that Newton’s keeper will want to forget as once more a wicked bounce suddenly ballooned the ball into the air and just over the keeper’s grasp. It fell kindly to a Haydock striker and amid wild scenes of delight on the home touchline he slid it home for a 3-2 lead!

Newton were deflated at this point and we then witnessed more than a glimpse of just why this outfit have struggled this season! Heads were down, aimless passes went astray and some of the attempted tackles were poor or other challenges simply missing altogether! Haydock now seemed to have the extra man and really turned the screw in midfield.
When their tormentor in chief notched another goal,at 4-2 Haydock had just about clinched it with fully 15mins to go! However, on came Newton’s sub and he immediately made his mark with what for him is becoming a trademark goal!

For once Newton’s right winger backed himself against the Haydock defence and sent in a great ball from the byeline which the sub gleefully sent into the net.

At 4-3 was there yet another twist? Only as far as Newton’s defence was concerned!

Not for the first time in this match they were twisted inside out until finally their keeper collided with his own central defender to allow Haydock to gratefully accept the winning score.

A fantastic effort by Haydock to win this one against the odds and a real lesson to Newton whose tale of woe simply goes on and on!