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Two fortunate goals condemned Rocester to defeat at a rain and windswept Beehive on Saturday, but despite the nature of Studley’s goals the Romans can have no complaints at the outcome after playing second-fiddle to the home side for most of the game.
From the kick off Rocester were up against it, and should really have gone behind as early as the second minute when Kevin Jones pulled the ball across the area to Pete Saunders, who fired against the left upright with just goalkeeper Richard Froggatt to beat.
Within seconds Shane Reaney found an opening at the other end but his shot wasn’t strong enough to seriously trouble Matt Harris in the home goal.
Studley then got the early breakthrough they were looking for with a sixth-minute goal that had as much to do with the weather conditions as anything else. Dan Styles swung the ball in from the right but appeared to have over-hit it until the ball held up in the gale blowing straight down the pitch and dropped down behind Froggatt inside the far post.
Further efforts from Saunders, Jack Edwards and Jamie Bailey were all narrowly off-target as Studley kept Rocester on the back foot, but the Romans managed to draw level ten minutes before the break through Shane Reaney, whose well-struck shot from the edge of the area swerved into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
A determined start to the second half almost produced something for Rocester when Adam Hewitt and Reaney combined well down the left; Reaney’s square ball wasn’t cleared properly and Mark Hodson forced a fine save from Harris, who finger-tipped his twenty-yarder away for a corner.
However, nine minutes into the second period it was Studley who edged back in front with a second lucky goal, this time Tom Lacey's tame effort bounced over Froggatt's arms as he got down to make what appeared to be a routine save.
Rocester never really looked capable of squeezing another equaliser although they did make more of a fist of it in the final fifteen minutes after Ashley Sheridan had been switched to the right flank and Josh Butler had been introduced from the bench to play on the left.
Sheridan almost immediately made an impact but was off-target with a rising shot from distance after cutting inside onto his left foot, and Butler sent a couple of decent crosses over – one of which was met by Reaney who volleyed wide.
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