ROAFL Report

Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

With the Management Committee’s decision to take a longer term view and call off last Saturday’s games at Firgrove only one ROAFL game survived the heaviest rains of the season to date, and that was on the 3G surface at Hopwood Hall as Asia inflicted a third league defeat in five games on Fothergill & Whittles in the Sartori Sharpening Services Premier Division.

The first half was relatively even as both sides enjoyed periods of possession without inflicting any real discomfort on their opponents, though Asia were the more cohesive unit, organised in defence and breaking forward with pace whilst Fothergills tended to overplay and eventually play themselves into tight corners.

The deadlock was eventually broken in the fortieth minute when the ball was cut back from the right and Rizwan Khan placed his shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

Fothergills came out with a greater determination in the second period but the poor run has clearly affected their confidence and self belief and they suffered the crucial blow in the sixty sixth minute as Shezad Khan made a telling run into the area to turn the ball beyond Grindrod in the Fothergills goal.

Fothergills began to throw men forward and when White reduced the deficit with just under fifteen minutes to play they were right back in the contest. Play swung from end to end with both sides creating and squandering half chances before Fothergills lost concentration at the back and allowed a short corner routine to reach Rizwan Khan at the near post, and he squeezed the ball home to give Asia only their second league win of the campaign.

A visit from unbeaten leaders Wardle is probably not what Martin Nuttall and his team would want this weekend whilst, on paper at least, the match of the day is undoubtedly in the Matthew Montgomery & Co Second Division as the top two, Woodbank and White Lion, meet at Nuttall Park.