Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

As the weather gods relented a full programme of fixtures in the Sartori Sharpening Services Premier Division was possible for the first time in ten weeks, and those four games provided plenty of talking points.

Leaders Rochdale Sacred Heart slipped to their first league defeat of the season as goals from James Matthews and skipper Ste Cass gave White Lion a 2-0 win at Firgrove.

Having failed the reverse fixture back in early November Lion knew a win was needed against a Hearts side that had already beaten them in the Chairman’s Cup competition, and match referee Tim Buckley reports a fiercely contested game in which both sides kept their discipline, played excellent football and gave their all in search of the points on a difficult and deteriorating surface.

Lion led at the interval as Cass played Matthews in to round the keeper and open the scoring, before Cass himself sealed the points with a fierce drive from twenty yards deep into the second half.

The win takes Lion into second place above Falcon, who had no game, and Fothergill & Whittles, who suffered their second league defeat in six games to newcomers and local rivals FC Littleborough.

A seemingly amicable parting of the ways in the summer saw several officials and players leave one camp for the other, and their first ever league meeting saw a single goal from Littleborough’s Justin Adams secure all three points for his side.

The win takes them above a Sudden side who are struggling to replicate the good form and exciting football of last season, mainly due to the fact that they are unable to field the same side two games running.

With influential skipper Gary Mason serving the last game of his suspension and several other 'no shows', Sudden suffered their second double figure home reverse of the season as goals from Oliver Wood (4), Gary Brierley (3), Joe Gale (2), Thomas Barnes (2) and Josh Gale gave Walsden their biggest win to date.

The remaining top flight game saw welcome first league points of the season for newly promoted Chadderton Park as goals from Ross Greenwood, Nathan Mansbridge and Paul Moult gave them a 3-1 home win over Woodbank at Crossley PF.

Having also beaten leaders Rochdale Sacred Heart in the Chairman’s Cup back in September this result, coupled with Heart’s defeat at White Lion, emphasises once again the unpredictable nature of this season’s Premier Division.

With only a third of the fixtures completed to date no one can predict the likely outcome with any degree of certainty, and it may well be that the club who can field a settled side over the remaining three months of the season will end up champions come May.

The Matthew Montgomery & Co First Division programme did not fare as well with just the one game surviving the elements, enabling leaders Rochdale Asia to extend the gap at the top to eight points courtesy of a 6-3 home win over Balderstone at Kingsway SC.

The sum of the parts is just not adding up for Nathan Agg’s Balderstone side this season, and he was a frustrated man as another determined and skilful performance went unrewarded for the seventh time in ten league games.

Balderstone led inside two minutes, but carelessly allowed Asia an equaliser just sixty seconds later, and were then 1-2 down after seven minutes yet level after seventeen.

A penalty restored Asia’s lead by half time but back came Balderstone to level matters once more on fifty five minutes.

With the leaders looking rather less self assured than usual, and depending to a large extent on another commanding display at the back from skipper Aiden Shah, chances came and went for Balderstone and, as they understandably began to tire, Asia sealed the points with three late goals to record a thirteenth successive victory in all competitions.

Osama Alwarfarli completed a deserved hat trick in addition to two goals from leading scorer Omar Malik and one from lively wide man Deon Rhodes.

Top meets second this Saturday as Rochdale Sacred Heart entertain Falcon at Firgrove, whilst the remaining President’s Cup Preliminary Round tie will, weather permitting, be completed at Redvales as Hargreaves from Division One host Premier Division opposition in Fothergill & Whittles.