Rossendale ride out the storm at Vale

FURNESS ROVERS ...... 0 ROSSENDALE FC ........ 2

AFTER last week’s friendly Rossendale returned to league action with the first of two consecutive away days to Cumbria, the first match was to face Furness Rovers.

In horrendous conditions due to the gale force winds Rossendale put in two very different halves of football due to the conditions to come away with a great all round team performance which led to a deserved 2-0 victory.

Playing with the strong wind at their backs Rossendale dominated the first period so much so that Rossendale keeper Vinny McLaughlin only touched the ball once.

Chances were hard to come by with the through balls to the forward players being picked up by the strong wind and running out of play, the chances that were on target were gathered in by the home keeper who from the start was time wasting to prevent Rossendale getting any advantage of the strong wind.

With as many as nine players behind the ball making desperate clearances, Rossendale were kept at bay.

However, on 18 minutes they did open the scoring when a throw in from the right was headed over the keeper and into the net by Paul Stannard.

Rossendale continued to dominate the half and scored their second goal on 32 minutes when Scott Wylie got to the byline on the right and hit a hard low cross which the home keeper could only parry, and Tom Hulme was the first to react to smash the ball high into the net from close range.

Try as they might Rossendale couldn’t add to their total and went in at the break with the two-goal lead.

In the second half Rossendale showed the home side how to play against the wind by taking the game to them and not sitting back and defending, and within five minutes Scott Wylie was unlucky to see his overhead kick cleared off the line.

Rossendale continued to press forward and cause problems throughout the second period coming close on several occasions and could have added to their two-goal lead.

And now it was the home side that were hitting the through balls too hard.

When they did get forward with the ball at feet they were stopped by the persistent hounding and closing down of a resolute midfield and defence that was determined to protect their clean sheet.

Even when the team went down to ten men on 70 minutes when Simon Nangle was sin binned for ten minutes for mouthing at the referee there was no let up from the whole Rossendale team.

Keeper McLaughlin was only called into serious action on a couple of occasions in the second period, pushing the ball safely round the post from a snap shop, and when a long ball from a free kick into the area was caught by the wind which brought a fabulous low down save pushing the ball away from danger that was clearly heading into the corner of the net.

Rossendale saw out the game safely to earn another three valuable points to take them a step closer to promotion, but the gap at the top hasn’t changed with wins for the chasing pack Burnley United, Carnforth Rangers and Walney Island. The advantage is with Rossendale and with the effort that was put in in this match in the terrible conditions, and on current form promotion and the title is theirs to lose.

For the second week running Rossendale return to Cumbria on Saturday to play

Dalton United (LA15 8DP) the match kicks off at 3pm.