Ravens breezed past Burscough FC 3-1 thanks to a double from Sean Doyle as the striker helped the Ravens move up to 11th in the North West Counties Football League.
After a tricky spell of results, the game could not have started better for the home side, when only 4 minutes into the game, striker Doyle was expertly found in the 18-yard area by right-back Jack Higgins. The defender’s cross found the number nine, who flicked his shot over goalkeeper Jack Atkinson to open the scoring.
The early goal did not seem to deter the away side, sticking to the plan of pressing high up the pitch and looked to trouble Ben Wilkinson with a few long passes but the keeper was unfazed.
Midway into the first 45 and a Doyle double put the match firmly in FC Isle of Man’s hands. Dean Pinnington curled a lovely freekick from 40 yards out into the path of the Manxman, and his shoulder was enough to leave Atkinson still as the ball went inside the far post.
Burscough defender Kian Bell found himself in the sin bin for dissent following the Ravens second, but again the away side would not back down.
Winger Jesse Dowling produced a moment of individual quality as the number seven was found on the right-hand side. Dowling then skipped past a few of the FC Isle of Man defence as he cut inside and let fly at Wilkinson, but the shot did not trouble the keeper.
Just before half time and it went from bad to worse for Bell and his side. A mistake by the defender allowed Charlie Higgins to latch on to the loose ball, before coolly slotting past Atkinson to make it 3-0 at halftime.
The Linnets nearly pulled one back ten minutes in to the second half when Cian McDermott collected the ball on the edge of the area and somehow managed to bypass the oncoming defense before getting a shot off to Wilkinson’s bottom left, but the man of the match did brilliantly to palm away.
However, with half an hour to go, The Green Army eventually managed to get on the score sheet. Charles Ball was able to wriggle himself into a bit of open space outside the box, as the forward then curled a magnificent effort beyond Wilkinson to keep the tradition of no clean sheets in the fixture.
What looked set to be a nervy 30 minutes for the home side, turned out to be more like a training session as the Raven’s controlled the game to it’s conclusion.
The Ravens are back at home once again next week against Charnock Richard. Get your tickets for that one here.
