Ravens Lose Seven Goal Thriller

FC Isle of Man fell victims to a late winner on Monday evening as second bottom Burscough edged out a seven goal second-half thriller.

The game also saw the welcome return of Ravens’ skipper Frank Jones, who made his comeback from injury after an absence of a season and a half. 

After a first half that could at best politely be referred to as forgetful, Burscough took the lead early in the second half when Xenon Bahula picked out Thomas Ruffer who powered home a header from close range, 0-1.

Ruffer doubled the visitors’ lead when Jordan Monthe was judged to have been fouled by Morgan Naylor in the box and Jamie Roberts pointed to the spot. Ruffer made no mistake from the resulting penalty, firing high into James Rice’s goal, 0-2. 

With the home crowd in a state of stunned silence, Ruffer was to offer the Ravens a lifeline as he was given his marching orders by Roberts for dissent after a foul deep in the FC Isle of Man half. 

Paul Jones’ men took full advantage of the extra man as Ste Whitley’s corner was only half-cleared, the ball eventually fell to Jack McVey who slotted past Charlie Monks in the Burscough goal 1-2.

That seemed to kick-start the Ravens as full back Jacob Crook went on a mazing run past two Burscough defenders and keeper Monks, only to see his effort come back off the woodwork, fortunately for the Ravens it fell to Morgan Naylor who slotted into the empty net, 2-2.

As the clock ticked down, a Ste Whitley free kick was met by Furo Davies, often the Ravens’ hero, who delivered a trademark header past Monk to send the Bowl into raptures.

That joy was to be short lived however as a Burscough counter attack, led by Bahula, picked out striker Edward Servuts, who swivelled and found the corner of James Rice’s goal 3-3.

Burscough could smell blood and as Bahula again caused the Ravens trouble, he went down in the box, with the referee deciding the minimal contact from Naylor was enough to award the visitors a dubious second penalty. 

With Ruffer having been sent off, the responsibility fell to substitute Alexander McMillan who sent Rice the wrong way and delivered Burscough a vital and well deserved three points in their battle against relegation.

Speaking after the game, manager Paul Jones said: ‘We didn’t really deserve a lot out of the game, I don’t think we played particularly well, I’ve just said to the players we put in an excellent performance against one of the top teams in the division on Wednesday night and then a few days later we come and play a team struggling at the bottom and don’t really turn up to be honest.’