Saturday 12th April 2008

Staffordshire Senior League

Rocester Reserves 1 Eccleshall Reserves 2

Due to a number of players being unavailable this was always going to be a big test for a young Romans side, but Joint Managers Geoff Thompson and Martin Meylan shuffled their pack as well as they could and in the end their team were unfortunate not to hold on for a point.

Colin Fletcher put Rocester ahead with a cracking 25-yard drive around 15 minutes into the game, and the Romans were good value for their lead at the interval.

Rocester were dealt two blows during the second half when Gavin Wood (hamstring) and Kyle Esplin (knee) were forced out of the game. They were replaced by substitutes Jon and Phil Shaw who went up front, while Gary Beardsley moved back into midfield.

The re-shuffled team faded as the half wore on and Eccleshall began to get on top, eventually equalising on 65 minutes through Carl Bradshaw.

Bradshaw then claimed the winning goal for the visitors from the penalty spot five minutes from time after a foul by goalkeeper Karl Smith.

Joint Manager Geoff Thompson said afterwards; "We told the players to just go out and enjoy themselves as we had nothing really to play for."

"We did quite well in the first half, Fletch hit a great goal and we deserved to go in at half time in front, but we fell away after half time and in the end they just wore us down."

"Ashley Grocott did very well filling in at left back, and defensively we were sound enough but after the injuries to Wood and Esplin we didn't cause them too many problems."

The reserves face Florence on Tuesday evening at Hillsfield (7.30pm), and are expected to be boosted by the return of Gavin Reynolds, Glyn Douglas, Paul Milward and Sam White to the squad.