A squad reshuffle didn't hamper the Legends on the famous Moss Park turf this morning as they showed they can battle with the most physical side and still come out on top!

After not doing themselves justice last week away at Adlington the Legends were determined to right some wrongs as they took on a North Walkden side who have been moved down from C section.

With Barlow away sunning himself in Benidorm it was Neil and Mike taking the reigns this morning, and with Roman back in full training they had a full squad to choose from. The starting line up looked like this.....
In goal was Riley B, we had a back four of Tyreese, Jak, Bentley and Trey, with a midfield five consisting of Lakari, Jacob, Antoni, Elliot and Reece and a lone striker of Noah. The Legends had a very strong bench also with game changers Zak, Oliver, Connor, Riley E and Roman ready to jump into the action where required.

The first half belong entirely to the Legends, with one comment from the large home support suggesting that if the game was a boxing match the referee would have stopped it by now!!
A very early own goal set them on the way with Jacob striking a left footed shot towards goal which the home keeper could only parry onto his own defender and into the goal........1-0!

It was then Reece's turn to get his very first goal for the Legends as the pressure continued on the opposition goal. Elliot played a lovely ball between the full back and centre back for Reece to nip in and fire across the keeper for 2-0!

It wasn't long before it was three either as Elliot again played a high ball forward which the rampant Lakari latched onto and fired home for 3-0!

Noah then rattled the bar with a shot from 10yrds as the one way traffic continued.

Zak was next to try his luck, as he skipped inside the left full back and readied himself to pull the trigger he was hacked down by the Walkden midfielder, who most felt, was very lucky to avoid a card for the challenge. Unfortunately, despite picking himself up, our top scorer could not continue and that was the end of his morning.

Walkden were left wondering what had hit them with half time approaching as Jak and Bentley had martialled the defence superbly, assisted by Tyreese, Trey and then Riley E there chances on Riley B's goal were limited to say the least!

Half time 3-0

The Legends team talk at half time was easy from Neil and Mike, keep doing what you are doing and the 3 points will be with the Legends at the end of the game.........

But it seemed the Walkden lads had really had an ear bashing from their coach and came out with some fire in their bellys looking to make things a bit more difficult than they had in the first half for the home side. Walkden were straight on the offensive and bagged an early second half goal against a stunned Legends team.

But with another shuffle of the pack, Neil and Mike steadied the ship and the home team wrestled the momentum back.

First our Mr Reliable Riley E pushed forward from left back to play a lovely ball over the top to Lakari, who skipped passed the full back and buried his shot in the bottom corner....4-1!

And then our number 10 Elliot provided his third assist of the game for Lakari's third goal of the game.......5-1!

That was North Walkden put to the sword and game over - The points were staying in Breightmet!!!

A superb performance against a dogged, physical Walkden team showed The Legends character today. There was some great performances from the home squad this morning but the MOTM was awarded to Elliot - with three assists to his name, Elliot was also pivotal in every forward move his team today as well as linking up fantastically with teammates Antoni and Jacob to form that first line of defence when the opposition attempted to push forward.

Legends TV caught up with Neil as he packed away the match balls and obviously he was more than happy with how the game went..

'We were brilliant today from front to back, everyone of those lads can be proud because they all put a shift in and worked hard for each other, it was great to see Roman back out there, and him, along with Noah and Bentley could have also got on the score sheet - but we will take 5-1! With Elliot loading the gun and Lakari firing the shots we looked unbeatable at times, but from Riley B between the sticks to Noah/Oliver/Connor up top we were great, I just hope Zak's injury isn't too serious as it was a poor tackle. We'll take three points however the wins come but its always alot more satisfying if we've had a great performance as well'

And with that he was off to see if Man City could do the same later in the afternoon!!

#upthelegends