Daisy Hill 2-2 Ashton Athletic: Late leveler denies Daisy the win

Daisy had dominated the first half of the North West Counties League First Division North match, and two goals from Sam Twist gave them a 2-0 half-time lead that could easily have been bigger.

But when Ashton Athletic captain Joshua Nicolson pulled a goal back ten minutes into the second half, the visitors were ahead, and despite determined defending from Daisy, Beca struck with virtually the last kick of the match to secure a point for his opponent. side.

Daisy manager Lee Hill summarized the disappointment in the home camp afterwards.

“It actually feels like a defeat, and the way we lost two points was very deflating,” Hill said

“Morgan Newns (Daisy goalkeeper) is disappointed because he feels he could have saved the second goal, but the other side of that is we could have come in four or five ahead at half-time.

“It’s small margins sometimes and if we had scored more of those chances in the first half it would have been different.

“We said at half-time that we had to make sure we didn’t spoil the missed opportunities, but we did that anyway.

“We felt comfortable for most of the game, but the good things we did, and what worked well in the first half, was where we stopped in the second half.

“The first half was one of the best we’ve played all season, and although we were very average in the second half, it was a bit back and forth.

“Momentum is hard to play against, and we had that in the first half, but they regrouped and came at us more in the second half, and we couldn’t get that away from them.

“Although the boys have given 100 percent, there have been certain moments in games this season that have cost us a lot of money. We have to deal with those moments a little better and hopefully this has been a learning experience.”

The final score was not the outcome that many had predicted after a first half in which Daisy created a series of good chances almost immediately from the referee’s first whistle.

Kaiden Barlow set the tone in the opening minutes with a blistering 25-yarder that was cleverly knocked over by Ashton keeper Joe Beswick.

Dean Singleton then hooked the ball just wide after Jake O’Brien’s corner was only half cleared by the Ashton defence, and then Barlow tested Beswick again in the Ashton goal with a shot from the edge of the box that was smothered by the goalkeeper. at his nearest post.

But the deadlock was broken in the 26th minute when O’Brien’s corner that curled into the near post was headed in by Twist from close range.

Daisy kept her foot on the accelerator and after Barlow’s acrobatic bicycle kick narrowly missed the target, Ben Unsworth just failed to connect with another O’Brien corner.

Jacob Ridings’ strong running caused problems on the right for Ashton, and he was involved in starting a neat move that led to Declan Baldwin creating another chance for Barlow, whose shot from ten yards went wide.

But Daisy finally scored the second goal their pressure deserved three minutes after the break, with Twist curling a superb shot into the far corner from 20 yards to bag his second of the evening.

Daisy came out after the break looking to pick up where they left off in the first half, and Ben Unsworth went close with the first chance of the second half when he headed wide from another O’Brien corner.

However, ten minutes into the second half, Ashton pulled a goal back when a surging run from full-back Conal Larkin led to him playing a neat through ball to his captain Nicolson, who collected the pass and beat Newns with a well-placed shot from the second half . edge of the box.

The game then fell into a period where Ashton dominated possession but was limited to largely long range efforts and crosses into the penalty area which the Daisy defense stubbornly defended.

But Beca’s introduction as a substitute midway through the second half proved a decisive addition to the Ashton arsenal as he scored a dramatic equalizer in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

A free-kick from the halfway line was driven deep into Daisy’s half, and when the ball fell to Beca, a burst of speed took him to the edge of the penalty area, before he fired a shot that Newns got a hand on. but could not prevent it from ending up in the back of the net.

Daisy are back in action in the North West Counties League First Division North on Saturday when they travel to Euxton Villa.