Dramatic matches for Alliance Football League

Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

The match of the day in the Rochdale Online Alliance Football League was the clash at Matthew Moss between last season’s Concept Filter Products Premier Division top two, Weavers and Wardle.

The two sides have had contrasting fortunes to date, though both recorded victories in the first round of the County Cup last weekend. Weavers started favourites for several reasons, not least the fact that the game was being played on their home 3G surface.

The artificial playing surface has supporters and detractors in equal measure, but it would seem no one could deny the quality of the game both sides put together on Saturday. Little quarter was asked or given throughout ninety minutes, with both defences answering every question that was asked of them in an even first period, well controlled by match official Joe Lowther. Clear cut chances were at a premium, but Smith and Wood never allowed the home defence to settle, while Hands, playing a deeper role than usual, was always looking to pick up the pieces on the edge of the Wardle box.

The tempo of the first half was maintained, and play began to get stretched as legs tired. Weavers created two clear cut opportunities inside five second-half minutes, only for Hands to squander them both, shooting wide from twelve yards and then heading over the bar when it seemed certain he’d score. Almost immediately, his side were punished, when Smith went on a typical mazy run down the left hand side, came back inside and laid the ball off for Suthers, who allowed it to run across him and cut it back across and over the Weavers’ keeper into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

The home side poured forward in search of an equaliser, but Wardle’s Scott Jones was outstanding at the back, and Suthers ran onto Smith’s inviting cross, only to head over from fifteen yards.

Back came Weavers, and with Wardle appealing for an offside decision that never came, a goalbound shot struck a hand at close range and Hodson levelled matters from the spot. Both sides went in search of a deciding goal, but with Scowcroft in typically commanding form for the visitors, and Smith and Wood running into more and more dead ends, a draw on the day seemed the fairest result in a competitive game played in an excellent spirit.

Asia played their first game at their new ground at Hopwood Hall against local derby rivals Rochdale Asia, with both sides fielding several new faces. Kami, on debut, struck twice in the first sixteen minutes, as Rochdale Asia struggled to gain their composure, but the visitors were back in it through Dumitru, after Asia lost possession in the middle of the park at thirty four minutes. Chances fell to both sides, but the decisive goal completed Kami’s hat trick moments before the interval, and Asia earned their first three points of the season.

Whitworth Valley’s view of their home game with newly promoted Syke was that it a “must win” game for them, even though it was only their third game of the season! Having inadvertently fielded an ineligible player against Fothergill & Whittles, and been beaten at Castleton, their view was understandable, and they fielded almost their strongest side in a game dominated by five man midfields almost throughout. In a match of little incident, one goal was to prove decisive, and it came Valley’s way when a ball in from the left was knocked down by Garry for Foster to score. The home side had a goal disallowed in the second half, and suffered a blow when they lost Hallsworth with a serious knee injury, but Syke rarely threatened, and all three points stayed in Whitworth.

In the Matterson Cranes Division 1, Whitworth Valley’s second string seemed to have the right blend of youth and experience and came away with a 3-2 win against Castleton 2nds. Goals on 20, 38 and 44 minutes put Valley in seemingly total control, only for the home side to pull a goal back with the last kick of the half. The Valley keeper then made several excellent second half saves to prevent Castleton from mounting a realistic fight back, and, when he was finally beaten eight minutes from time, it was too little too late for the home side.

Peels Arms went to the top of the division, courtesy of a hard fought home victory over Waggon Athletic at New Barn. Pownall gave Peels an early lead, cancelled out by Lloyd before the interval. A stinging drive from Lomas restored the home side’s lead and Pownall netted his second shortly after to make it 3-1. Preston reduced the deficit on seventy minutes, and it took a fine reflex double save from stand-in keeper Silke to preserve Peels lead and place at the top of the table.

There was an explosive start at Firgrove to the Weavers 2nds v Jacks House clash, as Jacks House went in front from the kick off, only for Weavers to then do exactly the same to them! 1-1 with just a minute played! Weavers then garnered a seemingly comfortable 4-2 lead with less than twenty minutes to play, only for manager Paul Brogan to accept he made a managerial error (Arsene Wenger take note!) that apparently resulted in four unanswered Jacks House goals in that last twenty minutes and all three points to the unbeaten visitors, with goals from Brown (3) Causton (2) and Craven.

In this division’s other games, a first win for struggling Prestwich Town, as goals from Gledhill, Ridley and Davies proved too much for Sudden Carling on Matthew Moss’s other surface – grass - and Hargreaves put eight past hapless Rochdale Sacred Heart at Goshen.

That rarest of amateur football results at Walsden Rec, as Horse & Farrier became the first side to take a point off newly formed Jacks House 2nds, courtesy of a 0-0 stalemate. Surprising, in that Farrier had been hit for six in both of their previous games, and Jacks were fresh from an excellent victory over Wardle 3rds last weekend.

Another surprise at New Barn, as last season’s Matthew Montgomery & Co Division 2 front runners AFC Royton conceded five without reply to new boys Balderstone, a win that suggests they will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

At the top of the early season table are unbeaten Sun Hotel and new outfit Syke 2nds, after both recorded comfortable 3-0 home victories over Wardle 3rds and Rochdale Asia 2nds respectively. Douglas, Lee and White netted for Sun, with Sandilands, Morris and Barber on the score sheet for Syke.

In the division’s final game, it looks like another long hard season for Woodbank, who despite goals from Hallsworth and Frost, slipped to yet another defeat at Greenvale against a Fothergill & Whittles 2nds side that had Vickers, Collins, Nuttall and McLoughlin to thank for their first points of the season.

Match of the day is at Rawstron Street in the Concept Filter Products Premier Division. Whitworth Valley and Castleton go head to head for the second time in three weeks, with Valley looking to avenge their 3-1 defeat that day and Castleton keen to continue their unbeaten start to the season. The match kicks off at 2.00pm.