Lower Breck manager Gary Moore is looking for his side to bounce back from their defeat to Longridge against Avro.
Moore’s side went to Lancashire depleted, naming a squad of just 13 and with an injury during the warm-up they were left with just the one substitute.
Their misery was compounded when Ricky Ager was shown a straight red card midway through the first half but despite the disadvantage Ste Milne fired them into the lead.
However, the miracle was soon shattered for Lower Breck as they equaliser was doubled on the stroke of half-time.
He told Off The Park: “I can make a million excuses at the minute, we went there with bare-bones, with 13 and couple of them don’t play for us, without being disrespectful, they hadn’t played all season and had a lad on his debut having to be played out of possession just to make us look solid at the back because we were all over the place.
“We’ve done well, started the game well, the sending off changes the game, we’ve gone 1-0 up and you’re thinking let’s manage it within five minutes it’s 1-1. I think the cruel one is the second on half time, referee indicates one-minute end up playing three, they score with the last kick, that’s the frustration that’s what rankles the players.”
“I haven’t seen it, I’ve seen the tackle, two lads together,” Moore continued on the red card. “He’s give the referee a decision [to make] and he didn’t make many in that first half, there were lads throwing themselves to the ground theatrics all over and the referee didn’t buy it – fair play to him.
“Most people have said it wasn’t [a red], I believe he hasn’t touched him but it’s one on one, they’re side by side, Ricky’s thought he could win the ball does he get a touch on it, he swears he didn’t touch the man but I’d be a fool to say yes or no but he has left it down to the referee’s interpretation.”
Longridge went on to score four unanswered goals in the second half compiling the 6-1 rout.
“It’s tough, it’s tough to speak to the players after a game like that, you’ve got so many excuses, so many reasons but we don’t like using and I’ve said this in the past we shouldn’t be losing control, we had five lads missing, if that’s your main 16 together and if that’s them getting beat then you’ve got a lot of issues but it was a mismatch of what we put together sadly we’ve been done again.”
They welcome Avro this weekend, who have recently seen their joint managers resign, and Moore believes they will be looking to inflict further problems on Lower Breck but hopes the stinging defeat on Thursday night will provide enough inspiration.
“Good pals with Avro and the management team, Matchdays always feisty, always tough, Liverpool side vs Manchester side. We go back a number of years, it’s a bit of a blow for them, they’ve got their reasons for stepping aside but Avro are going to be a tough side no matter who they bring, they’ve got a couple of issues themselves with suspensions.
“But I’ll tell you right now they’ll turn with whatever they’ve got, they’ll turn up and want it so we’ll need to match them. Every week, every game we’ve got turn up and do the right things hopefully have a few bodies ourselves, closer to the 14, 15, 16 and we go from there.
“Every games a different one but it’s every game we’re trying to win build something for next season, lads are playing to see if they want to be apart of this club next season so we’re expecting some good performances.
“They shouldn’t need anything [to be motivated] after that, we’ve got a clean slate on the board after a result like that we’ve still got to be mindful.
“We’ve had a lad pull up in the warmup who we knew he wasn’t going to be available. Spelly’s got a rib injury, Morris a groin injury, you throw in one lad on holiday, one working away so they’re coming back in the fold now, no matter what you’ve got they should be fired up after a defeat like that.
“I don’t want to be too negative, we tried not to be too negative after, a few lads give it a good go but times like that you need a little bit more.”
