Bradford Park Avenue Reserves 2:0 Pontefract Collieries Reserves
Lancashire Football League, Wednesday 18th August 2010

Pontefract Collieries Reserves – having come second from bottom of the Lancashire League in the 2009-10 Season – opened their account with a defeat against a strong Bradford side. However, this was anything but “more of the same” from the Colls Reserves, as the result belied a massive improvement in the performance of the team.

Keelan Hall, in his first competitive outing as manager, would have tempered his disappointment in defeat by a realisation that the team showed much promise. With a blend of players with first-team experience and ambitions and several players stepping up from the Academy sides, the team displayed a balance of youth and experience. In particular, Hall’s decision to name Duane Grace as captain proved wise, with the player displaying a calm quality throughout, as he had done in a protective midfield role during pre-season. Grace and Tom O’Brien provided a firm foundation for the team, with a centre-back pairing that combined firm reading of developing threats with a reassuring quality on the ball.

Although the away side started quietly, they created a good opportunity to open the scoring when Ash Gillespie – showing his versatility by filling in at left back – combined well with the club’s newly-crowned Young Player of the Year Bradley Thompson to fashion an opening for Myles Thompson. However, the header cleared the bar and Bradford escaped. As the first half drew on, the home side – an original founder member of the Football League – started to dominate. Their No 9 sent a bullet of a shot towards the corner of Gary Wilson’s net, only for the Colls keeper to pull out a magnificent save. However, there was nothing that Wilson could do about the opening goal, scored just two minutes before the interval. The Bradford striker artfully lifted the ball over O’Brien before striking home to put his side in front.

During the interval, Pontefract sensed that they were the equals of their illustrious hosts, and the determination to get something from the game was obvious right from the re-start. The manager extolled his team to trust each other in possession, and to re-fashion their game into a more passing, composed style after the break. The change in emphasis, together with the determination of the players to turn round the scoreline and the introduction of young Leon Guest for Tom Foy – who had displayed his usual driving influence on his team, but faded as the opening half had drawn on – proved key. From the off, Guest was a nuisance to the Bradford team. His restless energy, coupled with a desire to get into space between the midfield and defensive lines, added a new vigour to the Pontefract side, and seemed to provide the spark to ignite other players to raise their game. The listlessness of the closing stages of the first half was replaced by a real urgency, as the team continually drove forward in search of an equaliser. The excellent Brad Thompson will wonder how the BPA keeper kept out his firm strike that seemed the yell “goal” from the moment it left his boot, and both the silky Myles Thompson and the pacy Chika Orji also had opportunities that the home side somehow managed to frustrate.

In particular, Josh Stacey epitomised the Pontefract side: relatively anonymous in the first half, he came to life after the break, changing wings as he drove at the Bradford defence, using his lightning pace and good control to set the hosts back on their heels. Several chances were created from Stacey runs, as he combined particular well with “The Two Thompsons” to create openings from wide positions. With Callum Green giving a mature performance for a youngster thrust into the engine room against far more experienced players, and Keiran Wright contributing with several overlaps from right-back, the team thrust forward in search of the equaliser that their second-half performance deserved. In truth, they battered Bradford, but just could not find a finish to set the avalanche on it’s way.

As so often happens when a team is chasing a 1-goal deficit and their opponents are clinging on to their lead by their fingertips, the away side committed men forward in increasing numbers and, with the clock ticking down towards the ninetieth minute, were sucker-punched by a Bradford break-away to settle the game.

All in all, the game augured well for the reserves. Although results are not everything for a side whose primary aims are to progress players towards the first team, their opening day performance both delighted and frustrated their manager; frustrated, because he knew that the team deserved more from a game that they dominated from the interval onwards, and also by the contrast in ruthlessness between his team and his more experienced opponents: delighted by the displays of his team, many of whom should find that progression to the first team is well within their grasp. More than anything, he would have been delighted by his team’s attitude in their response to adversity, and the quality of the football they played after the break.  

Pontefract Collieries Reserves:

Gary Wilson, Kieran Wright, Ashley Gillespie, Tom O’Brien, Duane Grace, Callum Green (repl. Ben Phillips, 85 mins), Josh Stacey, Tom Foy (repl. Leon Guest, 45 mins), Chika Orji (repl. Jamie Oddey, 68 mins), Myles Thompson, Brad Thompson

Subs not used: Ben Day, Karl Abbott

Cautions: Leon Guest (85)