Trafford 3

TRAFFORD Football Club squandered three Unibond League points on Saturday when a mixture of poor defending and ill-luck saw them concede five goals at fourth placed Lincoln.

Trafford 's side was once again devastated by injuries with manager Mark Molyneaux missing the services of Steve Jackson, Chris Patterson, Tom Murray, Tony Briffa, David Lowe, Steve Raffell, Steve Burns, Rick Holden and long term casualty Jock Russell.

Despite this, Trafford turned in a spirited performance but fell behind after just three minutes when Andy Gray cut in from the left and shot past Jim O'Donnell.

Within five minutes, the Shawe View men were on level terms when Chris Simms fed the ball to Darren Emmett who shot through Ziccardi's legs from close range.

Play continued to drift from one end to the other and in the 18th minute Steve Carter broke free down the middle past the motionless Trafford defence and shot into the bottom corner.

Two minutes later Gray struck again when his chip from 20 yards took a wicked deflection and spun over O'Donnell's head to nestle in the back of the net.

Gareth Feeney fired inches over the crossbar soon after to give Trafford renewed hope but they were dealt a devasting blow just before half time when Lincoln were awarded a hotly disputed penalty.

Jim O'Donnell saved Carter's spot kick but then saw the referee order a retake, a decision that earned the normally unflappable O'Donnell and full back Chris Adams cautions for dissent, and Lincoln a chance that they gratefully accepted to go in 4-1 ahead at the interval.

Trafford's injury jinx struck once again when, within two minutes of the restart, both Ian Tunnicliffe and Iain McLeelan were forced to leave the field through injury.

Substitute Jamie Shepley reduced the arrears in the 49th minute when he flicked the ball past Ziccardi following a fine run and cross by Emmett.

Trafford's joy was shortlived, however, and in the 52nd minute Lincoln's giant centre back Darren Dye strode forward to power a header past O'Donnell after a flighted free kick from the left.

Ziccardi then had an inspired spell in the Lincoln goal when Trafford could, and should, have scored at least three goals, Shepley, Emmett and Gary Bickerton all going agonisingly close to scoring.

In the 75th minute Trafford's enterprise was rewarded with a penalty following a foul by Dye and Darren Emmett stepped forward to coolly convert the spot kick and make the score 5-3.

Even then, Trafford had further chances but their anger disappointment was compounded just four minutes from time when centre half Billy McCartney was sent off for an alleged second bookable offence when Paul Varley actually committed a foul on Simmons.

Nevertheless, even the Lincoln officials agreed to support McCartney in his plea of mistaken identity.

A controversial game came to a close with Trafford reflecting on a host of missed chances and some extremely naieve defending that has cost them five goals.

On Saturday Trafford travel to play high flyers Hucknall Town at Nottingham, KO 3pm and then next Tuesday Farsley Celtic are the visitors to Shawe View for a Unibond League game kicking off at 7.30pm.

Sportsmens Evening

TRAFFORD Football Club are holding their next Sportsmen's Evening at the Manor Hey Hotel in Urmston on Friday 14th May 1999.

Guest speaker is the King of the Stretford End, Denis Law, and comedian is Austin Knight.

Tickets may be obtained from David Law on 748 553376.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.