Promotion bid boosted as Stags close gap at the top
ROSSENDALE FC ............ 3 MILNTHORPE CORS ....... 1
ROSSY kept up the pressure on the top teams in the league and put a dent in near rivals Milnthorpe with a comprehensive victory on Saturday.
The Stags have now clawed back the deficit to four points on leaders Coppull United.
After last weeks game at home and with another week of bad weather the pitch was deemed just about playable with blue skies overhead. The home side pretty much unchanged from the week before albeit Reggie O’Brien came in for Jamie Sanderson who dropped to the bench and captain Stephen Claxon returned to central defence with
Joe Maycock unavailable.
The match began at quite a frantic pace with Rossy looking the more dangerous side in possession and having some early sighters on the Milnthorpe goal.
Milnthorpe though looked like a dangerous outfit on the counter and their game seemed to be soak up the pressure from the home team and then attack with speed down either flank where they had two very quick, quality wingers.
It was through this
tactic and against the run of play that Milnthorpe took the lead in the fourteenth minute. A long ball over the Rossy back line found the Milnthorpe left winger who ran in between right back Brad Marsh and centre half Matt Lord, he crossed and the centre forward tapped home for an easy finish.
This goal really riled the Rossy platers up especially Matt Lord who seemed to take it the worst and he began to drive the Stags on from the back. It wasn’t long before Rossy equalised and it was that man again in the 21st minute Dylan Harris who got on the end of a delightful free kick from Luke Tudor at the back post, he headed back across goal and into the bottom corner.
The Stags meant business and ran the ball back to the middle for kick off. Tudor in midfield now took centre stage and was unplayable. He looked so cool in possession and
Milnthorpe couldn’t get him off the ball, too strong, quality passing and great energy levels. It was no surprise he notched the home sides second. This time Harris repaid the favour and after finding space in the box he faked a shot leaving the defenders for dead and cut back for Tudor who struck nonchalantly into the net.
It was a deserved goal for Tudor and Rossy. Milnthorpe weren’t for giving up though and they nearly equalised but for a smart save from Matty Moore.
On 41 minutes Rossy were awarded a free kick about 25 yards out and upstepped Tudor. There was no way he was passing this one and you’ll struggle to see a better strike than what he delivered next. He smashed the ball straight as an arrow and it flew into the net via the top left stanchion and ended up in the bottom right hand corner. The keeper didn’t even move an inch!
Moments later just before the half ended Tudor then pulled up with a slight hamstring injury and had to come off.
The second half in comparison to the first half was pretty boring with the swashbuckling Tudor out of the match the tempo seemed to drop. Chances were quite limited for both teams with Booth and Hoyle in midfield putting the strangle hold on the game with a vintage ball retention tactic.
The only real drama to report came when Tom Settle who replaced Tudor saw red with 10 minutes of the match following two poor tackles, with the first one being enough to warrant a red to be fair. He had some big boots to fill though after what Tudor had done in the first half.
Manager Liam Wademan said: “Fantastic team performance today and a nice run of three wins in a row to boot.
“If I wanted to pick the bones out of it, slightly disappointed we conceded because we didn’t deserve it and the goal could’ve been avoided, but I keep telling the lads at this level teams punish mistakes. We reacted well though and took the game by the scruff of the neck.
“Obviously Tudor was a stand out performer but I’m liking the look of how cohesive we are.
“We look like a proper team and everyone is working really hard from back to front.
“There’s no game for us this Saturday and that’s a shame as we’ve got goo momentum, but we’ll rest up and be ready for the week after when we travel to Galgate FC.”