Daisy Hill made it four matches unbeaten with a 1-1 draw against Bacup Borough in the North West Counties First Division North on Monday.
Daisy went ahead through Matty Plested before conceding to an Oliver Hodgson penalty, leaving manager Nicky Hunt happy with the effort shown.
“It was a stop-start game, and nobody could get any real rhythm,” said Hunt.
“When we scored our goal, we seemed to settle down a bit and had a couple of half-chances after that.
“They got their penalty and then they had a one-v-one, which was a brilliant save by Jude (Smith, Daisy goalkeeper).
“In the second half Shep (Liam Sheppard) had a great chance, and it brought a great save from their keeper, but apart from that, there were no real clear chances.
“The ball was in the air and out of play for who knows how many minutes. It was one of those games, a bitty game and a bitty performance, although I was pleased with how we started the game.
“We knew their strengths, how they’d play for set-pieces and long throws, as they have big lads, and we dealt with that on the whole very well, and we’ve not been doing that this season.
“When we played at Bacup on Boxing Day, it’s still in my memory, because that’s the worst performance of the season, we never turned up that day.
“At least today we gave it a go. We fought, we tackled, we headed, but we just couldn’t get any of our players in the final third with any sort of quality.
“We’ve got one more league game next Saturday and we’ve just got to pick ourselves up. We’ve been doing it exceptionally well over the past few weeks. We just need to concentrate on what’s got us there and what’s got us there, and just go and do it again. We want to finish the season on a win.”
The first 15 minutes of the Cutters’ penultimate match of the league campaign was very evenly contested until Plested put Daisy in front.
Declan Baldwin’s free-kick was dropped by Bacup keeper William Blake and Plested was there to tap home his first goal for the club.
Smith was forced into his first save of the match in the 32nd minute where he charged out to block Hodgson’s effort on goal.
Only four minutes later, Bacup won a slightly contentious penalty, as Callum Hewitt went down due to very minimal, if any, contact on his foot after a challenge by Baldwin.
Hodgson took the penalty and dispatched with aplomb straight down the middle.
Five minutes later, Smith was forced into another save by Hodgson. This time Hodgson timed his run to perfection but his shot to the far bottom corner was saved by Smith with his foot.
The sides went into the break level, but the Cutters nearly went ahead only 10 minutes into the second half.
Abubakar Muhammed flicked the ball into Liam Sheppard’s path and on the bounce, he unleashed a volley that was superbly tipped over the bar by Blake.
On 61 minutes, Smith and Hodgson renewed their battle as Hodgson’s first-time shot in the box was saved by Smith’s legs keeping the match level.
Then, 18 minutes later, the personal battle occurred for the final time of the 90 minutes. Former Daisy man, Kaiden Barlow, slipped Hodgson in behind but again Smith was quick off his line to block the shot.
The final chance of the match fell to the Cutters and their talisman Sheppard. Muhammed played Sheppard in behind, but he could not get his shot on target as it went wide of the near post.
Share