Rochdale Online Alliance Football League Report

Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

With six wins in seven league games, Whitworth Valley provided leaders FC Bury Town with their sternest test of the season in Week 14 of the Sartori Services Premier Division campaign. However, goals from Awad and Jebb gave the leaders a sixth straight league win that takes them four points clear of second placed Balderstone, who met Oldham Boro for the second time in three weeks, and this time claimed all three points, with goals from Bennett 2, Butterworth and Heywood.

Boro’s second successive league defeat sees King William IV back into third place after their away win at bottom club Star Athletic. With only one goal in the league since the end of September Saeed Ahmed’s team is losing touch with the teams just above them, and so to score four and lose for the second time this season, served only to compound their frustration on an afternoon when two players required hospital treatment and a bad tempered game ended with a King William winner in time added on at the end of the game.

A tight and competitive game involving Rochdale Sacred Heart ended with the men from Fox Park on the right end of the scoreline as goals from Chris Kershaw 2, Stott, Booth, Barnes and Tony Kershaw earned them a 6-4 away win at Fothergill & Whittles; a defeat, despite a hat trick from Andy Law, that extends Fothergills’ winless run to seven games and sees them drop into the relegation places.

A second consecutive 1-0 home win sees Woodbank up to a season’s highest sixth place as Havens netted the goal that was enough to end the challenge of Walsden at Nuttall Park.

In the Matterson Cranes First Division F&W 2nds returned to winning ways with a double figure demolition of an under strength Balderstone 2nds side at Kingsway Sports Centre. Hat tricks from White, Greenwood and Johnson underlined the pace and power of a Fothergill's 2nds  that is a potent mix of youth and experience and the return league meeting between them and leaders Sudden in March may well decide who takes the Division One title this season.

No doubt Rochdale Asia, 1-0 winners over Syke, and unbeaten Hargreaves will bristle at that observation, and so might Whitworth Valley 2nds, though a shock home defeat to Rochdale Galaxy has put a dent in their prospects for the moment.

F&W Rovers secured a welcome away win at Wardle OB that moves them further into mid table security.

The individual scoring performance of the day came from Mighty Dragons’ Mike Cahill as he scored all four goals in their home win over Chadderton Park.

Games in the third round of The Presidents’ Cup will be played this weekend as the Premier Division teams join the Division One sides who have made it through to this stage.

With Rochdale Sacred Heart safely through to the quarter final stage, following Westdene’s resignation from the league, the remaining seven ties provide a fascinating mix.

Those looking for a surprise may well focus on Star’s trip to F&W 2nds, or Sudden’s visit to King William IV, with arguably F&W Rovers at Balderstone the only odds on bet of the day.