Rochdale Online Alliance Football League Report

Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

Whilst Fothergill & Whittles Seconds were closing the gap at the top of the Matthew Montgomery & Co First Division to a single point, their title rivals Sudden were busy ending the Littleborough dream of an all Fothergills President’s Cup Final by overcoming Fothergill’s first team by means of the much maligned penalty shoot out at Firgrove.

Two more goals for Andrew White, plus strikes from Collins, Lee and Greenwood, earned Fothergills Seconds a comfortable win over a Whitworth Valley Seconds side who have fallen away dramatically in recent weeks, a result that moves them within a point of Sudden with two games still in hand.

Four goals from Fitz McKenzie enabled Sudden to take their higher level opponents to penalties, as they could not be separated after two hours of open play and ten goals. It was Sudden who held their nerve to triumph 4-2 in the shoot out and they now face Whitworth Valley in the second semi-final currently scheduled for Saturday 26 April.

Valley remain very much in the Sartori Sharpening Services Premier Division title mix after a fourth successive home league win at Fearns in March, Oldham Boro the latest to return home pointless as Foster (2) and Proctor scored in a narrow 3-2 win.
Valley’s remaining league games are FC Bury Town, Rochdale Sacred Heart and Woodbank at home, plus Fothergills and Woodbank away. If they can win all five, and Balderstone slip up in one of their two remaining games, King William (H) and Fothergills (A), then Valley will be champions – an intriguing scenario with a twist here and a turn there surely left.

King William IV overcame White Lion, thanks to goals from Jackson, Bradley and Alfrey, only to fall to Fothergills in the first night game of the season, a game that was greeted, typically, by truly gruesome weather. The emphatic 6-2 scoreline gives Fothergills three consecutive league wins that moves them out of the relegation places, and, with more or less a full strength team finally at his disposal, Martin Nuttall’s men will be looking to be the cause of at least one of those aforementioned twists and turns.

Rochdale Asia’s lingering hopes of promotion were finally snuffed out at Mabel Road as improving Mighty Dragons recorded their best home win of the season with goals from Cahill (3), Byrne, Costin and Bailey.

F&W Rovers and Hargreaves are developing a two way contest for fourth place, a contest that will ultimately be decided by the two meetings between the sides still to take place.

A Dave Berry hat trick helped see off Horse & Farrier at Redvales, while doubles from Kibble, Harris-Hudson and Clark gave F&W Rovers a 7-3 away win at troubled Syke.

In the days remaining games, there was a first win in five for Balderstone Seconds as, strengthened by the inclusion of several first team squad players, they had too much fire power for Wardle OB.

A Hamza Arif hat trick earned Rochdale Galaxy just their fifth league win of the season against Chadderton Park at Firgrove.