Aigburth FC 3–1 Llandaff Athletic: the draw avoided

Match report

The match began as the table promised. Both sides had 39 points, separated by goal difference, and Llandaff had turned drawing into something akin to a vocation. Aigburth's own form was less disciplined: a short losing run, the kind that managers describe as a blip and everyone else describes as Tuesday.

The opening goal arrived in the eighth minute. Abendroth, given time to measure a cross, found Beaumarchais at the near post. The header was firm, directed, and entirely against the run of Llandaff's early pressing. It was the kind of goal that forces a team to commit.

Llandaff responded patiently. Their equaliser, when it came in the 57th minute, was typical of a side that specialises in not losing. Daviddi collected the ball on the turn and finished without ceremony. For nine minutes, the game threatened to settle into the 0–0 that had greeted these sides earlier in the season, only with an extra goal attached.

Then Beaumarchais intervened again. Abendroth was again the supplier, the run again clever, the finish again calm. At 2–1 with twenty minutes remaining, Llandaff were forced to chase, which is not their natural habitat.

The third goal, in the 90th minute, was a free kick awarded on the edge of the area. Blackmore, who had scored against Crookes three days earlier and limped off shortly after, took it as if he had been waiting all afternoon. Quinteros rolled it square, Blackmore swept it inside the post. Deserved, perhaps. Merciless, certainly.

The win lifts Aigburth a point clear of Llandaff, not that anyone will be checking the table with any great confidence. Tomorrow brings another fixture, and this league does not believe in contemplation. Someone will have to reset quickly. Llandaff, presumably, will draw again.