Skem hit four to stay top



Bamber Bridge 0 Skelmersdale United 4

With this resounding win, Skem briefly opened up a four-point lead at the top only to see their main rivals Bradford reduce that to just two points with their evening win against Mossley.

With two games in hand on Skem, they look like favourites for automatic promotion, but if United keep pulling off performances like this then Bradford will always be playing catch-up, and as we know god works in mysterious ways when the pressure is on.

With Mike O'Donnell making his debut for Skem and Sean McConville returning to the squad, Tommy Lawson fielded an almost fully fit squad for the trip to Bamber Bridge.

United started the game off brightly with O'Donnell's shot in the 7th minute only a couple of foot high of the crossbar.

Georgie Donnelly had a couple of early chances; one went directly into the keepers' hands with the other blazed over the target when he really should've done better.  Chris Almond also fired a shot wide courtesy of O'Donnell's lay off, and at that stage it was felt that it was a matter of when not if Skem would score.

In what can only be described as a period of over confidence, Skem's cavalier approach could've led to Bamber scoring a couple of goals in quick succession, but for two outrageous saves by Ryan McMahon - pound for pound the best keeper in the UniBond League.

Alex Porter's cross found Mark Edmeads who'd sneaked in between Akrigg and White, and what looked to be a 'dead cert' goal was only averted by the instinctive reactions of McMahon who blocked the shot.

A minute later McMahon pulled off another world class save; denying Porter who unzipped Akrigg before unleashing his target bound shot.

Paul Prescott got Skem's noses ahead with a superb finish in the 39th minute. Aaron Turner supplied a great ball which split Bridge's defence wide apart, but looked to have taken the ball far too wide. However, the finish was exquisite as he slotted the ball into the bottom right hand corner.

George Donnelly was sent off just before the half time break for retaliation. The referee had no choice and made the right decision, but once again the referee's assistant failed to flag up the fact that Bridge's full back, Stuart Beech was just as responsible in his role as the antagonist.

Bamber took the game to United early on in the second half, with Porter's rangy efforts not all that far from the target. Martin Crowder tried from all of 25-yards himself and once again it was only a couple of foot over the crossbar, but the hosts seemed to tire very quickly and Sean McConville was brought on to add to their woes. His blistering pace proved instrumental as he stole a march on the Bridge's defence courtesy of Adam Birchall's through ball in the 70th minute, and one-on-one with the keeper he calmly tucked the ball into the back of the net.

Kyle Wilson set Adam Birchall up in the 86th minute. Wilson barged his way down the left flank, squeezing behind the left back before laying the ball off to Birchall who drove the ball home between keeper and post.

The rout was completed two minutes later when Sean McConville beat the offside trap courtesy of Kyle Wilson's through ball, and capped off a wonderful return notching up a brace as he lashed the ball into the net.

MoM Adam Birchall

Team: McMahon, Foster, Hardwick, Akrigg, White, O'Donnell, Birchall, Turner, Prescott (15. McConville 68) Donnelly, Almond (14. Wilson 69) Sub Not Used: 12. Duffy.





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