ROAFL Report

Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

The amalgamation of the Rochdale Sunday Schools and the Rochdale Amateur leagues back in 1982 brought about the advent of the Rochdale Online Alliance League, and the lead up to the 31st season of that alliance has proved one of the most difficult in its history.

The loss of Castleton and Bridge to the larger football networks of Lancashire and Cheshire is part of the service a local league provides for those players good enough, and ambitious enough, to progress through the multitude of levels in the amateur football pyramid, but the loss of clubs like Waggon Athletic and second or third teams from any existing club is a negative culmination of a variety of factors currently taking an unrelenting stranglehold on local Saturday afternoon football.

The league is anxious to afford every possible opportunity for survival to clubs at this time, and so September’s Premier Division fixture list has been amended to give Balderstone, for one, the chance to sign or resign the players they need to maintain two teams in the league this season.

On the field Moorcock are the early leaders in the Sartori Sharpening Services Premier Division with four points from their encounters with Asia and Rochdale Asia respectively.

On the evidence to date the club appear more than capable of justifying the confidence shown in them by the management committee, and their away win at Rochdale Asia was achieved by ten men from 3-1 down after the early dismissal of their captain in an always tense, and often fraught, ninety minutes of competitive and mainly attractive football.

Mohammed Omar Malik’s hat trick wasn’t quite enough for Rochdale Asia but they too showed they have a lot to offer in the months ahead.

Elsewhere Fothergill and Whittles had six different scorers on the card as they demolished FC Bury Town at Whittles Park and a Darren Smith double gave champions Wardle a winning start at home against Whitworth Valley.

Jacks House are the September pacesetters in the Matterson Cranes First Division with six points and thirteen goals from their two games. Two up at half time at Goshen against Hargreaves Jacks were pegged back early in the second period by two Stewart Moth goals before recovering their poise to run out easy winners.

For the rest it seems to be a case of win one lose one though newcomers Westdene got off to an excellent start with a comprehensive home win over Whitworth Valley 2nds at Redvales with goals from Stout (2), McBride, Wolstenholme, Walton, Boyoh and Dalton.

Fothergill and Whittles 3rds head the Matthew Montgomery & Co Second Division as Spencer, Jorgensen, Kibble and Collins scored the goals that sent them to the top, whilst committing pointless and goalless Horse & Farrier to the bottom.

No shortage of goal mouth action in games involving White Lion to date as they lie just behind F&W courtesy of a 5-5 draw at Wardle 3rds and a 5-4 away win at Sudden, whilst its also a case of win one lose one for the rest, including the second new team Rochdale Galaxy, comfortable winners first time out but then well beaten by Sudden last weekend.

If you are reading this article and would like a regular game of football on a Saturday afternoon, with the added bonus of an escape from Gabby Logan and Garth Crooks, then the league website has the contact numbers for all the club secretaries. Give one of them a call and get involved – whilst at the same time helping that club to stay alive.