Squires Gate 1 Skelmersdale United 5: A day to forget against high-flyers

Following Tuesday's 1-0 win at AFC Liverpool, Gate made two changes at the weekend as Alex Welsh and Joel Mills replaced Jonny Hothersall and Jacob Ridings.

It was the visitors who started on the front foot, seeing a couple of early efforts going off target.

Skem made their early dominance pay and opened the scoring on 24 minutes.

Gate could only half-clear a ball in behind before it was played back across goal for Elliot Morris to bundle it past keeper Alec McLachlan.

Mills came close to an equaliser three minutes later as he hit the woodwork from distance before Dan Gray’s effort from the rebound was blocked and cleared by the Skem defence.

The visitors doubled their lead on 35 minutes when a header back to McLachlan fell short and was intercepted by Michael Howard, who fired home.

Luke Evans’ men struck back two minutes later though, Josh Westwood flicking on Ryan Riley’s corner and Prince Yelegon volleying home.

However, they fell two goals behind again from the restart as Daniel Mitchley breached the defence before finding the net.

Trailing 3-1 at half-time, Gate then conceded a fourth goal on 54 minutes.

A corner was only half-cleared with the ball crossed back in and headed into the bottom corner by Joe Herbert.

Skelmersdale sent another couple of decent opportunities off target and restricted Gate when they went forward.

They added to their tally on 81 minutes as Emini Adegbenro collected a pinpoint pass before rounding McLachlan and finding the empty net.

Gate did, nevertheless, go close to a late consolation on two occasions.

The first came when the Skem keeper missed a long throw and Westwood saw an effort cleared off the line.

That was before Max Rogers found Yelegon, whose looping effort over the keeper drifted just wide before the full-time whistle sounded

Gate are back in again on Tuesday night, hosting Vauxhall Motors at 7.45pm

Squires Gate: McLachlan, Ridings, Welsh, Gray, Bartram, Westwood, Riley, Iley, Yelegon, Da Silva, Mills. Subs: Garrett, Rogers, Burgess, Webster, Hothersall.

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