Date published: 03 April 2010

Friday 2nd April 2010

Unibond League Division One North

Radcliffe Borough 3 v 2 Rossendale United

Rossendale’s quest to get away from the foot of the table suffered another set back at Radcliffe when they went down to a narrow defeat although the blow was softened by the fact that Ossett Albion also lost so the positions at the bottom of the league remained unchanged. The game started badly for Rossendale as after only eight minutes Steve Howson was allowed too much space in the box as he headed home a corner from the left into the top corner of the net giving Tom Brocklehurst no chance.

A couple of minutes later Rossendale were rather fortunate not to go further behind when Adam Roscoe ghosted in from the right wing and blasted a volley over the bar when it seemed that it would have been easier to score. The Dale then began to settle into the game and after thirty two minutes a long rage shot from David Owens took a slight deflection and the ball sailed over the head of James Field in the Radcliffe goal and the score was level. Rossendale then began to play with more urgency and had Radcliffe on the back foot but as is usually the case Radcliffe regained the lead on the stroke of half time when some slack defending let in Ben Wharton and he made no mistake to put the home side in the lead at the interval. At the start of the first half Rossendale again pushed forward but once again Radcliffe took the advantage when another corner was flicked on and Tom Brooks was on hand to put the home side further ahead. Not to be outdone straight from the restart Rossendale pulled a goal back when Danny Ellis’s shot was partially blocked and looped high into the air and Ryan Zico-Black beat the keeper to the ball to put Rossendale back into the game. It was then all out attack from Rossendale but they failed to find the killer punch and once again were left to rue what might have been and more valuable points slipped away.





Rossendale Team

Tom Brocklehurst, Jack Higgins, Keith Wedge, Andrew Charlesworth, Harry Bockarie, Matt Walsh, David Owens, Tom Smith, Daniel Shannon

Ryan Zico-Black, Danny Ellis



Substitutes

Tom Clarkson (not used), Richard Winstanley (not used), Jonathan Crompton (not used), Mark Edmeads (for Walsh), Chris Coward (for Shannon )



Attendance 179