Darwen F.C. Reserves vs Atherton LR Reserves

Kick off 7.45pm Tuesday 22nd August

Line up (player rating)

1. Matthew Mugan  (3)

2. Peter Mayard (3)

3. Philip Taylor (sub 65min) (3)

4. Gareth Costello (3)

5. Richard Sheilds (3)

6. Charlie Moss (4)

7. Jordan Hamilton (3)

8. Anthony Aspin (4) (captain)

9. Daniel Aspin (sub 80min) (3)

10. Stephen Shackleton (5) (mom)

11. Luke Hargreaves (3)

12. Stephen Maynard (2)  (sub 80 min)

14. Steven O'Brien

16. Ray Booth (2) (Sub 65 min)

Score

H/T      -      1-2

F/T      -       3-2

Scorers

S.Shackleton (40,65,82)

Assists

D.Aspin (2)

L.Hargreaves

Report

A solid start to the season, lit up by the display of Stephen Shackleton who scored a hat trick and could have scored more.  Five members of the first team squad started and the team benefitted from their presence as they looked handy on the attack constantly causing the away team problems.

It was Atherton who scored first however as Luke Hargreaves brought down a player on the left hand side of the area.  From the resulting free kick Shackleton back defending glanced a header into his own net.  Darwen bounced back though and were soon on level terms as Shackleton received the ball in the area and powered home a shot with his right boot.  With a minute to half time it seemed the perfect time to score but straight from the kick off Atherton pressured and a long looping ball from the right wing to the back post found a player unmarked to casually stroke the ball past Mugan. 

Darwen came out with renewed purpose in the second half and looked the most likely team to score.  So it proved as Hargreaves hit a free kick that Shackleton headed in the right net.  It was then a race against time to find the winner but a through ball from Daniel Aspin found Shackleton clean through to complete a memorable hat trick. 

A solid performance ending in a deserved victory for the new look reserves.