Garstang FC boss is pleased to see his players take their chances

The Riversiders ran out 4-2 winners in their second round tie against Steeton on Saturday thanks to two goals in each half.

Ric Coar and Ben Roberts put them in control by half-time, after which Jake Salisbury and Andrew Murphy made the score 4-0 with quarter of an hour remaining.

However, the day was not all plain sailing for the Garstang camp as they allowed their visitors to pull back two late goals with Tawonga Gumboh profiting on both occasions.

One came from a set play – something which Cookney has spoken about previously – and the other came courtesy of a Garstang mistake.

“I think 4-2 flattered them,” Cookney told the club website after the game.

“We conceded from another set piece and, with the second, (Phil) Nagy has had a bit of a rollicking due to an individual error.

“We switched off and we have to anticipate the ball isn’t going out of play and, the second, Nagy tried to dribble it out and got caught.”

While Cookney was irritated with a couple of issues at the defensive end of the pitch, he was a lot happier with his players’ performance in attack.

They had failed to take advantage of opportunities created in previous games but had no such issue at the weekend.

Cookney said: “We could have had more, which is a good thing.

“We created a lot of chances and it could have been seven or eight really but I’m delighted with the goals we got.”

Garstang now host Maine Road in the next round on December 7 but they return to league action this Saturday with a home game against Bacup Borough.