AFC Liverpool manager Matt Potter hopes his side can carry their second-half performance against Lower Breck into their FA Vase clash against Cheadle Town on Saturday.
The Non-League Reds miraculously came from three goals down to knock out fellow North West Counties opposition in the Liverpool Senior Cup.
Billy McCarthy completed the comeback with just a minute of normal time remaining, two minutes after Tom Croughan brought them level.
“The performance of the first-half and how we played was probably the best it’s been in a month or two,” AFC Liverpool manager Potter told Off The Park.
“We moved it around a lot better than we have been but mistakes, errors, and crap decisions by us that let us go in 3-0 down at half-time. At half-time it was just pressing that reset button, we had nothing to lose and we went out, done the good habits and being a bit more clinical.
“Once you get one and two, you get a taste for it then you get your third, when the fourth goes in – it’s good. It’s takes us into the Vase on Saturday, it gives us that mentality, togetherness which is what was needed – it was a rollercoaster of emotions on the day.
“It was just scenes wasn’t it? Just joy, happy,” he added describing his feeling when McCarthy netted the winner.
“You look at it from different points of view, it’s the third time we’ve played Breck, the first time we lost 2-0 at ‘Fog-gate’ then we played them and it was 0-0, people moaning it was a poor game so yesterday, 3-0 down at half-time and we hadn’t scored a goal against them this season, it’s the last time we’ll play them so to go out and score four.
“You can get a 90th minute winner and it’s one of the best feelings in the world to get an 89th minute winner after being 3-0 down, there’s not a lot that can top it – regardless of the competition. There’s not a word… elated.”
This weekend, they host North West Counties opposition again as Division One South outfit, Cheadle, visit Crosby.
They sit just outside the playoffs in their division but have hit a bit of a sticky patch, losing their last four. However, the AFC boss is under no illusions of the threat they pose.
He added: “We know Cheadle Town, they’ve hit a bad run of form but it doesn’t really matter, they’ll want to perform, step up and rectify four losses on the bounce now.
“They’ve had a bit of a run in it so far, we came in during the last round because of last season. I’d like to think that the levels we finished off at on Wednesday, that second half performance, that’s how we go in now, that workrate, hunger and desire.
“Wembley’s not too far away, we make the best out of it what we can do, hoping there will be a good crowd because we’re one of the few kick-offs and there’s a lot of early kick-offs to cheer us on and progress.”
It is just the second game in the Vase for them this season after beating FC St Helens in their first involvement. They entered the competition in the Second Round after their run last season.
However, they were dumped out by Abbey Hey, missing the opportunity to move into the last-16. Now, Potter has his sights on redemption in the competition, starting Saturday.
“They all know how big the competition can be, we saw when Rylands won it and where Rylands is now then the success of the likes of Elliott Nevitt so it’s a big competition,” he continued.
“The lads aren’t going to not take it seriously, they’ll want to be apart of it, anything that it’s taught us is that we can go and win it.
“We’ll put everything in it to go out and progress. Last season, we had a good taste with how far we went and the way we went out was a way we didn’t want to go out, it’s a lesson we’ve learned from.
“For us to have the majority of the same lads around, it’s embedded into us as a culture that we want to progress in this competition and it’s one we want to put our own stamp on.
“If we do so well in this competition, we enter it at the same round every single year, that’s perfect, that’s what we’re building towards, building on the success, everyone knows how important it is. We come back from what we did last year to do better.
“There’s so much you take from last year, so many memories, we’ve matured since last year without a shadow of a doubt.
“You have hiccups in games and we’ve gone through a very tough month but we go into this one now and we know from Abbey Hey last year, we feel we let ourselves, we worked hard and out of the competition until the 80th minute and then we conceded the last kick of the game to go out on penalties.
“Everything after, it sticks with us, it gives us more to go further and kick on, it’s one we want to grasp, it’s one we can do well in and can win. We want that trip, we want to get down to Wembley.”
[Featured image: Dave Williams]
