Rossy derby doesn’t live up to expectation

Rossendale FC 1-1 Haslingden St. Mary’s FC

ON Monday night a bumper crowd for a Rossendale derby descended on Marl Pits looking for a good game of football between rivals Rossendale and Haslingden.

Both teams met last season when Rossy thumped Haslingden on their home pitch so the away side would no doubt be looking to exact some sort of revenge. The game turned out to be quite poor in terms of quality with both teams nullifying each other for the most part.

In the first half Haslingden got quite a lot of joy down the right side through Forlan Jakovlevs and he opened the scoring on 20 minutes when a cross somehow eluded everyone and landed in the net.

Apart from the goal, both goalkeepers had very little to do with neither of them having a save to make.

A scrappy affair with a lot of midfield action, Haslingden looked more up for the game than Rossy, but in reality both teams offered no cutting edge with the Rossy front line particularly poor.

In the end it was a 90th minute equaliser from the home side that ensured it was honours even when substitute Oli Williams turned home smartly from a Matt Lord drive from the edge of the area.

Speaking after the match, Jonathan Heap said: “That was one of the worst games of football I’ve ever watched.

“I’m more disappointed for the people that came out to support than the fact we dropped two points.

“We were never at the races. I could say three of our lads wanted that game, the rest of them were like rabbits in the headlights and we haven’t played like that in my time at the club.

“The front three were toothless, midfielders were guilty of holding onto the ball too long, trying to do too much in tight spaces. Not doing the basics, one two touch, move the ball quick. I could’ve made numerous subs.

“The positives I’ll take is we didn’t stop fighting and grabbed an equaliser. Defensively we were solid especially second half.

“Oli Williams started on the bench, 18 years old, came on and for me lead by example.

“Their danger man was Jakovlevs in the first half – soon as Williams went on he didn’t get a kick second half and if anyone deserved to bag that equaliser it was that lad because he just upped the team tempo, was dogged, had quality and most importantly showed heart belying his years.

“We need to put this behind us and come out firing Saturday when we are back at home against a tough Lytham side. I’m looking for a big reaction.”