Rochdale Alliance Football League round-up

Only five fixtures in the Rochdale Online Alliance Football League last Saturday but all bar one of those carried great significance in terms of silverware destination this season.

The significant results required in two games to send Weavers through to the knock out stage of the AW Trippier Cup seemed unlikely in that Weavers had several first team players missing for their trip to Rochdale Asia and even a handsome victory would leave them sweating on the result from Whitworth Valley’s visit to Whittles Park.
Long serving committee member Cyril Barlow will tell you when Fothergill & Whittles last had a season as good as this one and they completed their one hundred per cent record in the “Group of Death!” with a 5-2 home victory over Valley which sends them through to a semi final clash with Harlequin next weekend.
Weavers knew they had to win, and turn round a goal difference deficit of four, so a hat trick from Buchanan, doubles from Faulkner, Reynolds and Worrall and goals from Atkinson and Worthington proved more than enough to send Weavers through to a semi final clash with... Wardle!

Talking of which Weavers’ Monday night 3-1 victory over Fothergill & Whittles takes them to within a point of leaders Wardle, who have completed their league programme, and means victory this weekend over Harlequin will ensure Weavers retain the Premier Division Title.

In the first of the E Lythgoe Memorial Trophy Semi Finals Syke defeated Jacks House in a one sided contest by 9 goals to 1 at Firgrove. It took them twenty minutes to break the deadlock but once Scott Highton had netted his fortieth goal of a prolific season for him the floodgates inevitably opened as Bentley, Traynor and Highton again made it four before the break.

The second period saw goals at regular intervals, and a contest within a contest developing, as Byron Milne created chance after chance for himself only to be denied by the impressive, albeit overworked, Jacks House keeper on every single occasion. Highton and Bentley completed their hat tricks and O’Brien and Kershaw showed Milne how it should be done as the Asia Restaurant Division 1 champions progressed to a cup final meeting with either Castleton or Weavers 2nds who meet in the second semi final this weekend.

Leaders Castleton 2nds clash with second placed Whitworth Valley 2nds at Rawstron Street meant victory would have given either side the Matthew Montgomery & Co Division 2 title thus ensuring a tense contest from first whistle to last. The game was well contested throughout but free flowing football was at a premium due no doubt in part to the importance of the occasion. In the early stages the home side created the clearer opportunities but Castleton gradually began to exert pressure of their own though the goalless half time scoreline was due in the main to Valley’s failure to convert any one of three one on one opportunities.
It was Castleton who took the lead in the fifty fifth minute when the home side failed to clear a left wing corner and Darren Grainger hooked the ball back over his shoulder and into the net from twelve yards. With both sides feeling the heat a period of consolidation was required from the visitors but their hopes were undermined just five minutes later when Altimas was dismissed for an off the ball incident.
Castleton reorganised and began to sit deeper, inviting Valley on to them, and they looked comfortable with this tactic and were defending with composure and intelligence as the minutes ticked by.
Inevitably this gave Valley greater possession but the standard of their finishing failed to match their approach play and as the game entered its final ten minutes the title looked to be heading down Whitworth Road to Castleton. Cue Brett Barry as Castleton themselves failed to clear a corner and Barry volleyed it home to level matters.
The home side now looked the only winners but ran out of time and the 1-1 result means Valley need to beat Sun Hotel in their final game to claim the title in their first season back in the league.