A Bridge too Far

Northenden Victoria 0 v Pelican FC 13

PELICAN FC cruised into the quarter finals of the Altrincham Saturday League cup as second division strugglers Northenden found the ability gap between the top of the first and the bottom of the second division too large to bridge.

After just eight minutes a cross from Rick Mesquita was headed home at the far post by Nicky Plant and failure to deal with crosses proved to be Northenden's main weakness.

Mesquita repeated the action on 15 minutes and this time the headed goal was supplied by Gary Royle.

Within two minutes, Royle had bagged another, chipping home after Neil Cooper had headed on from a goal kick.

On 24 minutes Mesquita got in on the action as he burst into the box and made it 4-0 from close range.

Pelican right back Lee Stonehold was finding lots of space on the flank and in the 36th minute he set up Brian Baxter who duly made it 5-0.

Just before the break, yet another cross, this time from Nicky Plant, set up Gary Royle who made it 6-0 withthe first hat-trick of the game.

For the second half Pelican centre back John Bennett was granted his wish to move up to centre forward and in the first attack he made it 7-0 with a tap in.

Further goals from Mesquita and Baxter gave each of them a hat-trick as the game moved into double figures.

Most spectacular was centre back Keith Hutton's diving header at the far post and goal number thirteen was scored on the stroke of time by would be centre half John Bennett.

Pelican Res. had a tough game against title rivals Athletico and dropped two vital points as the honours were shared.

Steve Bennett bundled home Pelican's opener in the first half, but depite having the edge on chances in the second half they couldn't add to their tally and Athletico grabbed a share of the points.

Pelican in second place, but Trafford are edgiing away at the top.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.