Wednesday 9th April 2008

Staffordshire Senior League

Rocester Reserves 0 Ashbourne United 2

A bumper crowd of around 100 spectators witnessed a disappointing display from the Romans, and ground-sharers Ashbourne United deservedly took the honours in this 'derby' match with a goal in each half.

John Ford opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a well-struck 20-yard free kick, and his strike partner David Moon almost made it two-nil shortly afterwards with a decent effort that was palmed away by a diving Karl Smith in the Rocester goal.

Rocester finished the first half well with Aaron Plant's speculative shot forcing a good save from the visiting keeper, and the Romans continued where they left off after the break with Sam White and Gary Beardsley going close in the opening minutes.

However that was as close as Rocester got to finding a way back into the game as Ashbourne's defence dealt comfortably with a lack-lustre Romans forward line.

On the hour the visitors doubled their lead when Sam Archer's threaded pass from midfield released Moon, and as the striker homed in on goal Karl Smith came out to block his run and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Smith received a yellow card for the foul, and Moon got up to fire home the spot kick.

Unhappy Joint Manager Martin Meylan described the performance as "awful" after the game.

"We just weren't up for it at all, Ashbourne were sharper than us, they wanted it more and we've got no complaints about the result." He said.

"We defended fairly well and we had a couple of good spells, but after their penalty we didn't create anything at all."

"One plus for us was Sam Wain's performance in midfield, he worked really hard all through the game and didn't look out of place against some much more experienced players." Added Meylan.