6^th September 2022, Skelmersdale United v Runcorn Linnets FC : 1-4

Linnets returned to league action, after the narrow 1-2 long-distance FA Cup exit at Marske United, with a more manageable journey to Burscough, to face Skelmersdale United.

Since winning promotion from the NWC Premier Division, Skem have been camping out at Burscough FC - the artificial pitch at the JMO Sports Park having failed the NPL's 'bounce test'.

Those Linnets fans who had witnessed a pre-season victory over Burscough, a little over a year ago, had raised eyebrows.

The 4G pitch at Victoria Park, on a hot and windy summer's day, had reduced the run of the ball to ultra-slow motion. It was no different tonight.

The contest with the 'blue boys' was to epitomise the cliche 'a game of two halves'. The first was slow, characterised by niggly, static challenges, and rarely threatening a goal.

The second was sparked into action by a Skelmersdale goal straight from the kick-off. They possibly came to regret that, as it appeared to turn Linnets from mild mannered Dr Bruce Banner into a raging Incredible Hulk.

The turn around, which began almost immediately, resulted in a 4-1 Runcorn victory, and the winning margin could easily have been greater.

The game began with a somewhat lucky escape for the visitors, as 'keeper Danny Taberner was left stranded when Sam Sheen sprinted into space in the Runcorn area, but his shot was weak and wide.

Linnets settled, and an early Ally Brown cross flew a fraction too high for the head of Nialle Rodney, and a Sidi Sanogo one-two with Dapo Olarewaju set up a Zack Clarke shot, but it soared over the bar.

The first two corners of the game were taken from either side by James Short, the first headed wide by Sam Heathcote under pressure, and the second headed away from the near post by Jack Hont.

Skem's first corner soon followed, and from Heathcote's clearance, a Dapo run up the right won another for Runcorn.

Several minutes elapsed before it could be taken, as referee Aaron Williams rejected three balls as being too soft. But it seemed that the turgid passage of the ball was caused by the pitch, rather than a shortage of air pressure.

Passes on the ground, ahead of a teammate's run, rarely got there. It led to a slow game, with a growing number of clumsy challenges.

When Daniel Mitchley saw a yellow card, after 20 minutes, for a late lunge on the halfway line, it was to be hoped that it might stem the tide.

It wasn't to be, as both sides ended the game with four cards apiece. Eight yellows suggests a dirty game, but it never was. If the ball had moved as it does on anything resembling grass, there would have been far less time for tackles to result in anyone lying in a heap.

Sidi Sanogo was next to go into Mr Williams' book, and not for the first time this season, it had less to do with his ball-winning challenge than with a theatrical reaction to it, and was heavily encouraged by concerted Skem demands for a red.

On 32 minutes, United 'keeper Andy Coughlin, who had started the season with Linnets without making a competitive appearance, punched away Short's free-kick from a foul on Clarke. The punch fell a little fortunately to defender Kenny Strickland, rather than to Dapo Olarewaju, who was poised to strike, a couple of yards beyond him.

Skem attacked on the break, Elliot Morris passing ahead of Mitchley, but Heathcote tracked back quickly and limited the centre-forward to a harmless punt wide of the right post.

Mitchley was closer with a similar break on the other side, a minute later, but Taberner had the near post covered as the close-range shot found the side netting.

Ten minutes before the break, Louis Hayes was next into the book, presumably for his vehement reaction to a two-footed lunge that missed.

A highly-promising five-Linnet move from left to right ended with Dapo winning another corner off Hont's block. Griffiths' head got to it a fraction before Clarke's.

Olarewaju was involved again as Runcorn forged the last chance of the half. Lewis Doyle, a powerhouse as usual between both penalty areas, kept his through ball airborne, so it maintained the pace for Dapo to run on to it into the right side of the area. He had enough of an angle to have tried a shot past Coughlin, but seeing Sanogo advancing through a gap towards the far post, he chose to cross. It was a yard too far in front of Sidi, and it ran wide.

It had been a turgid first half, and that was as good a word a any to also describe the Burscoigh surface. The answer might be to make progress through the air, rather than along the deck, and Skelmersdale cemented that impression with an opening goal, less than a minute from the restart.

Nobody in yellow and green had touched the ball when a swift dart up the right-hand side reached Elliot in plenty of space, at the corner of the penalty area. He launched an arcing shot high over the advancing Danny Taberner, and into the far corner of the net.

The first half had been hard work, and the travelling fans among a crowd of 209 that looked like twice as many, feared an uphill battle to turn around the deficit.

They might have had more faith. Linnets appeared to have learned the first-half lesson that passes would find their target far more successfully in the air, avoiding the drag of the artificial turf.

It took less than two more minutes for the change of approach to bear fruit. Callum Lees' foul on Zack Clarke led to a free-kick that was taken quickly, setting Clarke away up the left. The referee called it back to be taken again, much to the disdain of the Runcorn fans.

But Mr Williams had done them a favour, followed by another when he failed to penalise a high boot to prevent Sidi Sanogo heading on the clearance from Short's free-kick. Sidi sprinted ten yards, sidestepped in front of two defenders, and lashed an equaliser into the right corner.

The new approach to the game, of finding teammates with fast balls off the ground, turned it into an end-to-end affair, and the first ten minutes after the break provided more incident and excitement than the entire first half had done.

Linnets were getting more bodies forward to support the tactic, Heathcote and O'Mahony both spending more time in the Skem half. That naturally provided their opponents with opportunities to hit them on the break, and full-backs Brown and Short were having to sprint back as much as forward, Taberner's workload also increasing.

His high punch from a crowd on the six-yard line sparked an Ally Brown charge up the right. Ally's cross found Zack Clarke, who turned Lees, controlled and shot, firmly but straight at 'keeper Coughlin. He couldn't hold it, but managed to cling on to Dapo's point-blank follow-up.

Brown had to get back fast to cut out Strickland's through ball for Mitchley, conceding a corner. That was punched away again by Tabs.

As passes reached their men faster and higher, so did challenges, and the referee became busier too. A Runcorn free-kick from the right led to Dapo winning a corner from the right. Heathcote and Clarke both made contact with the ball in the area, but were repelled.

It was hard to believe that the clock had only just reached 55, and the next few minutes saw more frantic activity, mostly in and around the Skelmersdale area.

A Lewis Doyle blast from 18 yards was deflected up and over for another corner. He, Rodney, Brown, Clarke and Olarewaju all worried the Blues defence with solo progress into the penalty area.

Zack Clarke was repeatedly catching opponents in possession and winning the ball, to put Runcorn back on the attack.

Sidi won a 50/50 outside the area and played it right for Ally to charge on to. The right-back tried to extend his surprise status as Linnets top scorer, but his powerful shot on target was held well by Coughlin.

Somebody very near me, in fact it was I, suggested that with the way the shape of the game had changed, Jamie Rainford would fancy his chances up front.

After 62 minutes, the Linnets player-assistant manager set out to prove me right, joining Jacques Welsh in a double substitution for Sanogo and Rodney.

It took Jamie barely a minute to make me Nostradamus. A full-length Coughlin dive was required, to palm a 30-yard Heathcote boomer around the post. From Short's corner, Rainford was allowed too much space six yards out, and was able to place his header into the net.

Midfield dynamo Lewis Doyle picked up a justified yellow card for a late tackle on Abdul Djalo, with little chance of reaching the ball. The Skem No.10 spent one of his numerous lengthy spells on the ground, receiving physio attention.

With 20 minutes remaining, Zack Clarke, who was ultimately to edge at least half a dozen other candidates for Linnets Live Radio's man-of-the-match award, shaped to shoot from 20 yards. He was hooked to the floor by his trailing foot before he could connect, earning a yellow card for Sam Sheen.

Justice for the 'professional foul' came swiftly. Everybody, including Andy Coughlin, expected Shorty to aim for the top left bin, but he spied a gap in the wall, and drilled his kick low and straight into the net. Andy's feet never moved.

Linnets had no intention of sitting on the 3-1 advantage, and a good five minutes of sustained pressure saw Clarke, Welsh, Olarewaju, O'Mahony, Brown, Short and Rainford all eager to get within firing range and extend the lead further.

In his post-match interview with Sam Phillips, manager Dave Wild said that Jamie is a vocal advocate of the 'Haaland Principle', that the more time a striker spends in between the posts, the more he will score.

The well travelled striker has demonstrated the efficacy of that policy in a prolific career all over the North West, and he was applying himself to it again, determined to get back ahead of his right-back as the club's top scorer.

He turned in a crowded area and tried to carefully pick a spot in the net, but this one got away, squirting wide of the post.

A string of free-kicks both ways resulted from a short spell with play bogged down in the middle third, and after an umpteenth appointment with the physio, Abdul Djalo finally checked out in favour of Tom Croughan.

At the same time, Emini Adegbenro replaced Kenny Strickland.

The changes did contribute to a number of chances for Skem to halve the deficit, but the Linnets' back four limited them to speculative shots wide, or weakened ones on target that didn't trouble Taberner unduly.

Welsh and Rainford combined to set up a shot for Clarke, but close pressure forced him to fire high.

A 50/50 challenge in the area between Rainford and Lees squirted the ball out fior either a goal-kick or a corner. But with no visible illegal contact from Jamie, Lees' scream was enough to convince the distant Mr Williams to award Skem a free-kick, and Rainford a yellow card.

As we entered added time, Zack Clarke was felled by Griffiths just before he could cross the line into the area, from the left. Griffiths was added to the yellow card count, and Jacques Welsh curled the free-kick just outside the far top corner.

Following his second-half debut from the bench at Marske, Isaac Turner made the briefest of second appearances in yellow and green, in place of Zack Clarke. Dapo Olarewaju transferred his Duracell bunny contribution from the right wing to the left.

With the clock ticking down, a moment of indecision between Coughlin and full-back Hont, at the corner of the area, allowed Welsh enough time to sprint in and nick the ball away from them. With the option of chipping the 'keeper, he unselfishly passed inside to Rainford.

The Linnets deputy boss paused for thought with three defenders closing in, and appeared to have dwelt a bit too long. But he felt otherwise, and calmly slipped the ball between them, and into the net.

There was barely time to kick off again before Mr Williams blew the whistle on a 4-1 Linnets win, which few would have predicted at the end of a scruffy, goalless first half.

It was a disappointing outcome for Richard Brodie's first game as Skelmersdale manager, following the departure of Paul McNally for City of Liverpool FC, where he had replaced former Linnets boss Michael Ellison.

I don't know if Richard shares my reservations about the unresponsiveness of the Burscough playing surface, but it might be relevant that this was Skem's third defeat from four home outings, against a 100% record so far from two away games.

Runcorn's Wild Boys would have few complaints about the 4G, as their marauding second-half performance on it took them to third place in the table, below Leek Town on goals scored, from a game less, and two points behind early leaders Macclesfield.

It was a morale-boosting evening, before another long road trip, for Saturday's Isuzu FA Trophy First Qualifying Round tie at Workington.

Runcorn Linnets:Danny Taberner, Ally Brown, James Short, Lewis Doyle, Sean O'Mahony, Sam Heathcote, Dapo Olarewaju, Louis Hayes, Nialle Rodney (Jacques Welsh 64), Sidi Sanogo Fofana (Jamie Rainford 62), Zack Clarke (Isaac Turner 90). Sub not used: Tom Moore.

Attendance:209.

NB. The views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Runcorn Linnets FC or its Board.