Rocester 1 Quorn 3

ROCESTER are still without a point after four games of the Midland Alliance campaign, writes IAN CRUDDAS.

But last Tuesday's 3-1 defeat by Quorn at Hillsfield was more due to bad luck than a poor performance.

For the first hour, the Romans were marginally the better team, but the game turned on a diabolical penalty decision by an assistant referee which gave Quorn the lead. The spot kick was followed by a scrambled goal for the visitors and more Rocester misfortune when Lee Bagley's header rebounded off the crossbar.

The Romans again fell behind to an early goal when he free kick from wide on the right was clinically headed home by Adrian Greatrix after njne minutes.

Rocester, however, were back on level terms five minutes later after Bagley's shot had been scooped away by Quorn goalkeeper Matt Nurse. The resulting corner was only half cleared and new signing Karl Payne set up a pass for Bagley to fire home from close range.

Rocester continued to look the more danagerous team in attack until the ball bounced up against the arm of skipper Simon Carter in the penalty area in the 60th minute. The referee intitailly waved play on, but his assistant called him over and persuaded him to award the spot kick from which Joseph Jones put the visitors ahead.

Not surprisingly, this incident knocked some of the wind out of the Rocester sails and, following a corner on the left, Liam Turner put Quorn further ahead after Adam Beazeley's shot had rebounded off a post.

Rocester's hopes of a late recovery were thwarted when Bagley's firm header rebounded off the crossbar.

Uttoxeter Advertiser                                                     Published on 30/08/2005