ROMANS WILL RUE MISSED CHANCES

Loughborough Dynamo 0 Rocester 0

Plucky Rocester gained a precious point in the battle to stay in the Midlands Alliance at mid-table Loughborough. The Romans turned in a creditable performance and deserved all three points - but were yet again left rueing missed scoring chances.

They could well have secured only their second league win of the season had Mark Ruddock not missed three golden opportunities of securing a much-needed victory.

Rocester pressed for an early lead from the start, and they played controlled football throughout the first half.

The visitors went close to taking a deserved early lead when Adam Baum curled a shot inches wide of the left-hand post. That chance boosted the team's confidence and Craig Hancox was very close to opening the scoring with a low drive three minutes later.

Midway through the half, Ruddock appeared to have been put clear of the Loughbrough defence. However he was stopped in his tracks by a last-ditch tackle by chasing defender Tom Breward - saving the day for the home side.

Rocester's dominance was shown by the fact that Loughbrough never troubled goalkeeper Paul Wood before the half-time interval.

The visitors continued to press forward and created most of the opportunities in the second half.

Hancox forced a good save from Loughborough keeper Stephen Widegaard and Paul Tortoishell's shot just wide of the target when well placed.

Ruddock also had two opportunities to seal a win for the Romans in the space of five minutes.

But with only Windegaard to beat he fired wide of the right-hand post with his first effort and then saw his second attempt to clear the Loughborough crossbar.

In the second half, Wood again saw little action in his goal, but did get down well to save a shot from Simon Dolman near the end.

A draw was a welcome result for the Romans, but this must go down as an unexpectedly wasted opportunity to secure a rare victory. There will surely be few better opportunities to claw back points to secure the club's Midland Alliance future.
 

Uttoxeter Post & Times