Saturday 22nd July 2006 Friendly Blackpool Wren Rovers 6 Ashton Athletic 3

Whilst half the squad were on the way down the East Lancs to play Monton the other half were on the way up the M6 to Blackpool for a friendly match against former NWCFL high flyers Wren Rovers, who now compete in the West Lancs League.

Wren got off to a flyer with a 5th min goal as the Ashton defence failed to deal with cross and allowed the Wren striker to nip in with a close range finish
Ashton hit back almost straight wawy as a searching ball from the back by Keith Boulton was taken down and held up well by Martin Ormesher. Ormesher turned sharply and provided an inch perfect through ball down the left for Paul McVeigh to cut in and slot the ball to the right hand side of the advancing keeper.
This gave Ashton momentum and after 15 minutes took the lead as a speculative cross in from the left was superbly volleyed home ferociously by Paul McVeigh, with the keeper later admitting that he didn't even see it coming.
Shortly before half time Wren equalised with a sloppy goal to send the team in all square.

In the second half it was Wren who came out the stronger buoyed by the goal just before the break, and two quick strikes gave them breathing space until a great finish by debutant Tom Davies in the 8oth minute reduced the deficit.

The game was then put out of reach for Ashton and the assistant referee went to sleep and missed a blatant offside that left the home manager deeply apologetic after the game.

Damaged done and as Ashton pushed forward to peg back the score the opposite happened and Wren broke away to score again, and give them a more than flattering score.

Good performances were in abundance with several players having their first outing in the pre season build up, but for an excellent full back display throughout the game the Man of the Match was awarded to Pat Aspinall
END