Rossy pegged back but maintain run against rivals

ROSSENDALE went into the derby with an unbeaten record and in second place while seventh-placed Haslingden had lost two and won one.

The Stags started as they had on Saturday and peppered the Haslingden goal early doors, with Tom Hartley giving the Haslingden defence a tough time.

He tested them on a few occasions but Monaghan was equal to his efforts.

The deadlock was broken on 30 minutes when midfielder Luke Tudor made a great run and ended up one on one with Monaghan. There was only going to be one winner and Tudor calmly slotted home showing great composure.

Hartley had his penalty appeals turned away after causing more chaos in the Haslingden defence before he was brought to ground with what appeared to be a foul – not so, said the referee.

In the second half Rossy were nowhere near the level they had been playing and resorted to the long ball tactics.

Both teams really negated each other, but Rossy still tested Haslingden with the better chances,

Monaghan making a very good save from substitute Maycock at point blank range.

Eventually though a rare lapse in concentration in the

Rossy defence with 10 minutes left meant yet another long punt upfield sent Brierley through and he scored with Haslingden’s first and only shot on target of the game to keep honours even and Rossendale maintained their record of never losing a competitive fixture to their near neighbours.

After the game, Rossy manager Liam Wademan: “I can’t help but feel we’ve thrown two points away again here. Haslingden have nothing to play for and this fixture is their cup final so they were always going to be up for it.

“The lesson we need to learn – and it’s the same from Saturday – is we can’t keep missing the chances we are doing. We create so many and with our key striker on the treatment table in Martin Trickett we aren’t as ruthless as we need to be. If you don’t put teams away they’ll always be in the game and that’s what has happened here. Positives are we kept solid throughout and weren’t really in any danger and we keep our unbeaten record against Haslingden as it’s important to keep that going.

“We need to react again Saturday, we’ve lost one out of our opening seven games and I’m sure the lads will be chomping at the bit as we are back at home hosting Galgate FC for a 3pm kick off, so it will be nice to be back in front of a home crowd with five of our first seven games being away from home.”