Ramsbottom United 2, Kirkham & Wesham 0
10:13am Monday 12th November 2007
KIRKHAM boss Mick Fuller is planning wholesale changes after suffering a Second Round knockout in Saturday's Vodkat League Cup tie at First Division Ramsbottom United.
Fuller, who was forced to go into the tie without his influential captain Dougie Shaw through injury said after: "Some aspects of the performance were quite pleasing.
"But we've got problems with our back line and l'll have to have a long hard look at what we can do about it.
"We just can't keep conceding goals like we are and l think maybe away from home we need to find a different approach."
Kirkham, suffered their second loss in a week, something which in the past nine seasons is almost unheard of.
They fell behind just four minutes into the second half when defender Wayne Cropper skied a ball that let in United's Tony Johnson who fired in low to score.
And when Mark Wane's well hit ground volley hit Rams keeper Martin Campbell's legs just after the hour, Kirkham's best chance of the game went begging.
Seconds later tricky Rams winger Dave Hanlon, the smallest player on the pitch, looped a header over keeper Pete Summerfield to effectively settle the tie after 63 minutes.
While Kirkham pressed for an opening to get back into the match they rarely breeched the home sides well marshalled defence, although Phil Blackwell could have done better with a late header which flashed wide.
Fuller added: " This defeat's a further setback for us.
"We were caught out by making our own mistakes."
Shame was that Kirkham had the bulk of possession, especially in the first-half and had chances to go in front, Wane fired wide and over early on and even had a shot saved within eight seconds of the kick-off, but as we know in football, it's goals that count and the visitors rarely had the punch to land anything like a knockout blow.
Scorers - Ramsbottom United: Johnson (49), Hanlon (63).