Rossington Main 2 v Campion FC 0 - NCEL Div 1

Tuesday 20th Septemer 2016
Toolstation NCEL Division 1
at Oxford Street
Rossington Main (1) 2
Andrew Wood 22
Jake Vernon 78 pen
Campion FC (0) 0
Admission £4. Programme sold out, Attendance 122

Rossington Main:
Simon Day, Tom Harte, Brad Billlam, Josh Morris, Tom Dorgan, Liam Cooper, Andy Wood, Jordan Hatton, Jake Vernon, Jason Stokes, Jake Johnson
Subs - Niall Doyle, Cain Wellins, Callum Black, Callum Wiffen, Ryan Musselwhite

Campion FC:
Dan Armitage, Ben Kendal, Dan Stocker, Matt Jones, Josh Cooke, Dan Brown, Matt Waller, Scott Eastwood, Eli Hey, Jordan Missin, Lee Bradshaw
Subs - Liam Charles, Andrew Tasker, Graham Hall,Gavin Armitage

Back to back home wins have seen 'Rosso' climb up to eighth place in the NCEL Division 1 table tonight, as they strive to put last season's annus horribilis, when they finished twentieth in a twenty one team division, well and  truly behind them.
Both teams created plenty of chances in a game that could have finished four apiece, or gone either way, with Rossngton having the bulk of play in the first half, while Campion probably shaded things possession wise after the interval, but lost their way, along with their heads (so to speak), in the closing stages and saw the game out with just nine players on the pitch, with Matt Tyers dishing out two red cards inside the the last ten minutes.

A quick look at the goal scoring stats on the NCEL website, shows that Eli Hey, the visitors number 9, is settling in comfortably to his new surroundings, as Campion embark on their first ever season at this level, having won promotion from the West Riding County Amateur League at the end of last season, where the club formerly known as St Edmund Campion (from the date of their formation as a junior side in 1963 until 1975) have plied their trade for the last three decades.
For the record, they won their first ever NCEL game 5-2, away from home against Westella and Willerby on August 6th and it was Eli Hey who netted their first ever league goal that afternoon.
Hey was obviously highly motivated and keen to add to his tally tonight, but he found Tom Dorgan and Josh Morris to be equally keen to thwart his quest for goals and he didn't get much change out of the pair of them all night as the Main back line defended well for the most part Even after Liam Cooper limped out of the game halfway through the first half.

It was Dorgan who almost created the opening goal when he fed the ball through to Jake Vernon, but with the visitors defence appealing for an offside call and the assistant's flag staying down, it was Dan Armitage who salvaged the situation for the Bradford based side, charging off of his line and clutching the ball to his chest.
Jason Stokes beat Armitage with a thumping shot from the edge of the area, but the ball crashed against the right hand upright.
Ben Kendal picked out the prolific Campion front man Hey, who received the full back's pass on the edge of the area with his back to goal and shot on the turn, but he was well wide of the target.

Tom Harte was getting forward down the right flank to good effect and combining well with Vernon and Stokes, as the home side began to settle into their rhythm and put Campion on the back foot.
Campion conceded a free kick some thirty five yards from their goal, which Jordan Hatton (I think) took quickly, (while the visitors defence were still organising) into the path of Andrew Wood, just inside the area, who darted forward past Armitage to roll the ball into an unguarded net, to give Rossington the lead after twenty two minutes.

Lee Bradshaw almost masters the art of invisibility as he
runs up to take a free kick deep inside Rosso territory.

The Campion players were incensed.
Not because the referee had allowed the free kick to be taken while they were still getting themselves sorted out (in no particular hurry), but due to the fact that when the dead ball was knocked forward to Wood, it wasn't from exactly the same spot as the actual offence was committed.
Just how far forward from the scene of the crime was differed depending on whoever was narrating their own eye witness account of events, but one thing that I can verify for sure, is that in all of my years of liaising with match officials on behalf of several clubs over the years, Matt Tyers is up their among the better referees I have ever dealt with and these things balance themselves out over the course of a season... don't they?
I would have thought, that the best policy to adopt if you don't want undoing by free kicks in your final third, is to digress from committing fouls in such dangerous areas.

Jordan Missin sped forward and broke into the left hand side of the home sides defence, but he got his feet in a tangle and went to ground as Simon Dye advanced from his line and smothered the ball.
Campion's diminutive attacking midfielder Matt Waller, showed some good touches and no small amount of pace as he charged around inside the final third, trying to chip away at a stoic 'Rosso' defence.
He played a short corner to Hey and chipped an angled shot onto the roof of the goal from the return pass and saw his shot from the opposite flank deflected at the expense of a corner just moments later and when flag kick found Missin, Dye was on hand to pull off a great reflex save from the big number 10's close range downward header.

Morris clattered into Hey, a few yards outside the penalty area and Scott Eastwood wasn't far away from leveling things up as he drilled the resulting free kick wide of the the post.
As a lively first half came to a close, Andy Wood had two great chances to increase his side's lead, but Armitage managed to twist backwards and tip his shot from twelve yards over the bar, while Wood diverted the ball past the post with a glancing header from Stokes' cross.
HT: Rossington Main 1 v Campion 0
The home side came out all guns blazing after the half time break and Hatton went close as his shot glanced off of a defender and went behind for a corner.
Brad Billam linked up with Hatton and Wood as the Main advanced via a series of first touch passes, before feeding the ball wide to Harte, whose cross found Stokes but Josh Cooke blocked his shot.

Matt Waller was involved in most of Campion's forward play and he went close with a dipping shot that narrowly cleared Dye's crossbar from outside the area. The effervescent number 7 then forced a save out of the Rosso keeper with a crisp shot from the left hand side of goal, after an exchange of passes between Lee Bradshaw and Eastwood.
The visitors were enjoying a good spell and were close to drawing level when Hey sprinted into the home side's goalmouth, as Dye charged from his line to narrow the high scoring centre forwards shooting options and did enough to rattle Hey into rushing his shot and he side footed the ball wide of the post.
Play switched to the other end of the pitch again and Armitage did well to keep out Jake Vernon's angled shot, while Dan Brown put his foot through the ball to hook it away from Stokes as he was about to pounce on the rebound, but the attempted clearance fell, who at the feet of Jake Johnson who unleashed a shot somewhere in the general direction of the East Coast Main Line.

You couldn't take your eyes off of the pitch for a moment as this end to end game continued at breakneck speed. Campion pushed forward again and amidst a goalmouth scramble, Missin was denied by Dye who pulled off a worldly of a reflex save, to keep out the rangy attackers knock from just three yards.

Both sides were still at it hammer and tongs and Stokes was only inches away from doubling Rossington's lead, when he ran onto Hatton's through ball but stabbed the ball the wrong side of the post.

Billam was making a great contribution for the home side, covering his defensive role at left back well, whilst tearing up and down the left flank and chipping in with some decent link up play.

Kendal showed why he is a defender, when Dan Stocker's shot rebounded into his path and he struck the ball with plenty of power, but without any concept of which direction the goal was in and it's trajectory headed dangerously towards the flight path of planes coming and going from the nearby 'Robin Hood Shefield Airport', which in spite of it's name is actually at what used to be Finningley Aerodrome... so now you know why they don't have the annual Airshow there anymore.

The highly competitive nature of the game reached tipping point in the 78th minute when Mr Tyers spotted an infringement inside the Campion area and after consulting his linesman who was flagging for penalty, awarded a spot kick to 'Rosso'. 

A few of the Campion team saw the red mists and berated both match officials to the extent that Missin was given his marching orders. 

There is a FA directive in place this season pertaining to abuse aimed at match officials and Missin made a rod for his own back by showing dissent to both Tyers and his assistant.

Vernon compounded the visitors misery wen he drilled the spot kick past Armitage to make it 2-0.

Worse was to come for the visitors when they went down to nine men, when Dan Brown conceded a clumsy foul near the halfway line and received a second yellow and subsequently a red card.

It was a shame that the game finished under such a cloud, because up until the penalty, it had been compelling viewing with both teams giving a good account of themselves and obviously not in the mood to settle for a point apiece.

With both a two goal and two man advantage, Rossington saw thee remainder of the game out comfortably while Campion left Oxford Street with nothing to show for their efforts.

FT: Rossington Main 2 v Campion 0 

It had been a really enjoyable game to watch, until a few of the visiting team lost their discipline towards the end of it. 

Campion make the short trip to Eccleshill United for a Bradford derby at the weekend; while Rossington are hosting NWCL Premier Division side Bootle FC in a FA Vase fixture. 

Good luck and best wishes to Lee Holmes and his team on the road to Wembley.