Saturday 26th January 2008

Staffordshire Senior League

Abbey Hulton United 2 Rocester Reserves 3

Rocester Reserves continued their fine run of results with a thoroughly deserved win at high-flying Abbey Hulton.

The sides had met twice in December with one win each - Abbey winning a Leek Cup tie 4-2 after extra time and Rocester narrowly winning a league fixture 1-0 at Hillsfield, so a closely fought match was always on the cards.

It was Rocester who took the initiative with an excellent first half display, and they deservedly led 2-0 at the interval with goals from Gavin Reynolds and Jon Lamburn.

Reynolds opened the scoring with a close-range finish after some good work down the left by Paul Tortoishell, and Lamburn doubled the lead midway through the half with a 25-yard free kick that he drilled into the bottom left-hand corner.

The Romans were totally in command when Rory Maxwell added number three with a rare headed goal fifteen minutes into the second half, but Abbey quickly pulled a goal back in controversial circumstances.

With Paul Wood out of his goal, Darren Fearns was clearly in an offside position with only one defender goal-side of him when he received the ball, but the flag stayed down and he tucked it into the net to make it 3-1. Wood was then shown a yellow card for his protests.

A miraculous double-save by Wood kept the home side at arms length, while at the other end substitute Ashley Grocott found the net with a lovely left-footed volley only to see his effort ruled out by an offside flag.

Grocott then forced a good save from the Abbey goalkeeper when he raced clear.

With time running out Abbey threw everything forward to try and salvage something from the game, but Fearn's 90th minute strike proved to be no more than a consolation for them.

Assistant manager Geoff Thompson said afterwards; "It was a good all-round team performance that emphasised the strength in depth we have at the club."

"Everyone worked really hard, Paul Wood was outstanding in goal and in the middle of the field Martin Gadsby and Gavin Reynolds have a great understanding."

"It was also nice to see James McCarron back in a Rocester shirt, he is another player who can start to push for a first team place once he gets his fitness levels back up."

"Overall it was a good win and a satisfying day for us, but with many of the players cup-tied for our two up-coming semi-finals we will need to work even harder to get through them."

Rocester: Paul Wood; Mark Bailey; Phil Bull (Matt Jackson 50); James McCarron; Mark Thompson; Gavin Reynolds; Martin Gadsby; Paul Tortoishell (Ashley Grocott 48); Aaron Plant; Rory Maxwell; Jon Lamburn (Phil Shaw 80).