KIRKHAM & WESHAM got back among the promotion pack with a 3-2 victory over lowly Daisy Hill at Kellamergh Park on Boxing Day, but their Westhoughton visitors almost landed their own knockout punch.
Kirkham boss Mick Fuller said after: "The work rate wasn't good enough and we nearly paid the price."
Kirkham three up and cruising at the break went ahead after ten minutes when Mike Clark cut inside the visitors defence having played a one-two with defender Tony Keefe to drill a low shot home and it was almost a copycat goal on 27 minutes when the tricky skills of James Sheppard carved an opening for Sean Paterson to slip in his 17th goal of the season and put Kirkham firmly in the driving seat.
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And when skipper Phil Thompson ghosted onto the end of a Mark Wane assist on the left after 39 minutes the festive crowd might well have expected a second-half avalanche from the home side.
But it never came.
Fuller added: "I told the players at half-time that supporters only remember the second 45 minutes and we almost let the points slip. We let ourselves down."
Indeed it's hard to understand why Kirkham were so poor in the second-half - or was it because Daisy Hill were so good?
Full-back Allan Jackson gave away a penalty on 67 minutes for a foul on Matt Lynch when the midfielder was going no where and Kevin Hughes stepped up to fire the spot kick home.
And when burly full-back Craig Whittaker drilled in a 30 yarder screamer off the far post to make it 3-2 nine minutes from time it was all hands to
the decks as Kirkham tried to rescue their valuable promotion points.
Mind you there were chances in the second-half for Kirkham to make the game safe but some last ditch defending by Daisy Hill kingpin Craig Farnworth stopped all that, the best of which was a tackle on Wane after 58 minutes when a long ball over he top by Jon Moffatt almost caught the visitors napping.
Coupled with results elsewhere Kirkham's victory moved them back into the promotion pack for the first time in six weeks, although their second-half horror show nearly turned into a festive nightmare.
Scorers.
Kirkham & Wesham: Clark (10), Paterson (27), Thompson (39).
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