Rossendale United 2 v 2 Bamber Bridge

Date published: 10/03/2010

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Unibond League Division One North
Rossendale United 2 v 2 Bamber Bridge

Rossendale manager John Hughes’ hopes of fielding and unchanged side from last Saturdays successful one against Curzon Ashton were dashed when three players pulled out through injury and so once again it was not possible to field a settled side. This showed when after only six minutes ex Rossendale favourite Phil Eastwood latched onto a long through ball and deftly flicked the ball past Brocklehurst in the Rossendale goal.

As the game progressed Rossendale began to get into their stride and with twenty nine minutes on the clock they were level when Daniel Shannon was fouled on the edge of the box and when the resulting free kick was only half cleared it fell to Tom Smith on the corner of the penalty area and his low shot somehow found it’s way past a host of defenders into the far corner of the net. As the half drew to a close a good move between Shannon and Smith almost gave Rossendale a half time lead but the danger was cleared by the Bamber Bridge defence.

Rossendale started the second half in the ascendancy with Danny Ellis, Ryan Zico-Black and Shannon prominent but they had to wait until the sixty third minute for another goal which arrived when Ellis’s cross was headed against the post by Shannon and David Owens coming in from the right managed to get a head to the rebound and nod it over the keeper.

Rossendale’s undoing in the game was their tendency to give the ball away cheaply and this cost them dearly when in the seventy third minute Phil Watson was presented with the ball and he ran at the defence only to be brought down in the box and from the resulting penalty Eastwood stepped up to make the scores level from the spot.

Rossendale pressed forward looking for the winner but neither side was able to capitalise and the game left Rossendale with another valuable point in the bid to climb away from the foot of the table.

Rossendale Team
Tom Brocklehurst, Jack Higgins, Keith Wedge, Nicholas Swirad, Harry Bockarie, Richard Winstanley, David Owens, Tom Smith, Daniel Shannon, Ryan Zico-Black, Danny Ellis

Substitutes
Tom Clarkson (not used), Shaun Williams (for Smith), Alex Leke (not used), Sam Heap (for Winstanley), Andrew Charlesworth (not used)

Next Games
Saturday 13 March Chorley (Away)
Tuesday 16 March Salford (Home)