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Match Report |
Rushall Olympic 3 Bedworth United 0
29th March 2008 |
***Match report courtesy of Rushall Olympic - http://www.rofc.co.uk/***
Rushall Olympic regained fourth place in the table and strengthened their
play-off claims further by easing to a comfortable home win against mid-table
Bedworth United to gain ample revenge for defeat in the reverse fixture back in
November.
With manager Paul Holleran on holiday, his assistant Chris Brindley took charge
of team affairs and opted to make a few changes with striker James Knott making
his full debut, while Dave Haywood and Neil Barnfield were restored to the
starting line-up as Neil Grainger, Rob Holdcroft and Phil Rowe all took their
place on the bench.
After the visitors won the toss and opted to allow Rushall the advantage of the
Dales Lane slope and a strong swirling tail wind, the home side were rapidly on
the offensive and proceeded to pin their guests firmly in their own half for
long periods. With only ninety seconds on the watch a big penalty appeal rang
out as James Knott appeared to be brought down in the Bedworth box by a stray
leg of defender, but much to the consternation of the home contingent the match
official waived away the strong protests.
Worse was to follow on 6 minutes when James Knott was this time the victim of a
blatant shove in the back from his marker, but incredibly referee Mr. Bate was
still having none of it as his popularity amongst the Dales Lane faithful waned
even further.
In the 17th minute Bedworth finally made their own mark on proceedings when a
flowing move saw Ben Cole find his way past the Rushall defence, but could only
send a low sixteen yard drive well wide of the right hand post.
As the home side regained the initiative on 26 minutes they were awarded a free
kick just inside their own half and skipper Lee Barrow had Bedworth 'keeper
Andrew Kemp furiously back pedalling to tip over his wind assisted long range
effort for a corner. However, the danger was far from over and as Richard Beale
swung in the resulting flag kick from the right the referee surprised everyone
by pointing to the penalty spot after Richard Brown had been nudged off the
ball, in what was arguably the most debatable of the three penalty appeals of
the match so far. From the resulting spot kick top scorer Richard Beale stepped
up to the mark and consummately converted his conversion into the bottom right
corner, sending the Greenbacks custodian the wrong way in the process to net his
15th goal of the campaign and his sixth from 12 yards.
On the half hour mark United briefly responded when former Olympic loan player
Ben Twigger sent a rising 25 yard effort well over Tony Breeden's woodwork.
Eleven minutes prior to the interval and the home side deservedly doubled their
advantage when a probing pass picked out the hard working Junior Brown some 12
yards out, but with his back to goal the ball appeared to get stuck under his
feet and was unable to turn around to get a telling shot off. However, striker
partner James Knott was alert to the situation and as the danger was about to be
cleared by the visitors defence the front runner displayed immense bravery by
steaming in to the ruck of players to clinically rifle home from eight yards.
Rushall emerged for the second period braced for the visitor's potential
onslaught with the slope and wind now in their favour, however the threat never
really materialised as Bedworth were ultimately limited to a handful of long
range efforts that rarely tested 'keeper Tony Breeden.
A minute after the restart and Bedworth substitute Leroy Williams found himself
goal side, but from an acute angle in the left of the box a low 15 yard drive
deflected off defender Niki Preston safely into the hands on the Pics custodian.
Eleven minutes later as Olympic continued to adapt to the atrocious weather
conditions, visiting attacker Leroy Williams again found himself in a good
position but could only send a 25 yard effort sailing over the crossbar.
As the second period continued the Pics were admirably absorbing Bedworth's
increasingly futile attempts to break down their hosts' steadfast defensive
unit, while at the other end the home side were still managing to make telling
inroads into opposition territory on the counter offensive.
Still the Greenbacks were limited to long range efforts and as the game moved
into the final quarter of an hour Jamie Williams chanced his arm with a 25 yard
drive that was well held by stopper Tony Breeden in his midriff at ground level.
With Rushall by now having replaced front pairing Junior Brown and James Knott
with Craig Marshall and Neil Grainger, the home side began to pose new problems
for Bedworth.
In the 80th minute the latter created some space for himself on the left edge of
the box and sent a curling effort marginally wide of the top right corner.
However, it only acted as a precursor to what was about to come when within a
minute as Olympic maintained their pressure a pin-point centre to the far post
from the right picked out Craig Marshall who rose to plant a looping header into
the top far corner across the despairing dive of 'keeper Andrew Kemp to seal all
three points for the Pics.
With two minutes remaining United's Jamie Williams was presented with the
opportunity to restore some pride for his side, but once again Rushall's
custodian was in no mood to relinquish a clean sheet and was equal to the
challenge as he took no chance by safely parrying away the pacey strike from the
edge of the box around the post for a corner kick.
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