Rossington Main 0-2 Penistone Church

Rossington Main 0-2 Penistone Church
Pre-Season Friendly
Wednesday 9th September 2020

It's quite likely that Penistone Church will have another decent season in the NCEL (Premier Division) and they showed their class in this routine win over Rossington Main.

The visitors, donning their black and white stripes, took the lead just before half-time when Sam Scrivens peeled off the shoulder of Rozzo's veteran centre-back to latch onto a perfectly-floated ball towards the edge of the area and subsequently unmarked, fired past 'keeper Callum Fielding.

Penistone then doubled their advantage just after the re-start with Luke McGinnell getting his name on the score-sheet thanks to a well-placed header from a left-sided delivery.

Thereafter, things were pretty comfortable for the higher-division team and the closest the hosts came to an equaliser was when a long-range drive from Cameron Barnett (I think) was palmed away by the visiting 'keeper.

It's always a pleasure to go back to Rossington given this was the place, after all, where I went to school and essentially grew up, and they should certainly take positives from this game. Yes, they were beaten by the better team on the night, but it's an experience the younger players especially can learn from.

There's plenty of talent in Rozzo's ranks with many individuals having connections to Doncaster Rovers. New signing Jack Watson, who played the full game, would have undoubtedly got a first-year pro contract had it not been for the pandemic, whilst midfielder Cameron Barnett, looking physically stronger these days, is another player I rate highly who came through the academy set-up. He was on the receiving end of some tough tackling at times but got up, got on with it and with belief/confidence, he definitely has attributes to go on and play again at a higher level at some point in the future.

Keeper Callum Fielding is also the brother of ex-DRFC player, Reece Fielding, who is now at Stocksbridge Park Steels, whilst quite a few others in Rozzo's set-up have come through the academy system at DRFC but weren't offered scholarships.

Young Bobby Faulkner (No.6) also had a good hour or so before he was substituted.

Elsewhere in the team, there's Brad Billam, at left-back - someone I was in the year below at school in what seems a bygone era. He's an established and experienced figure in Main's ranks who has been associated with the club as long as James Coppinger has been associated with Rovers, whilst Jason Stokes is another player who has a wealth of experience (including internationally) under his belt.

It's a good set-up at Rozzo nowadays - the pitch is absolutely excellent and it was good to see so many familiar faces from years gone by, whether it be people I know through football, work, school or parents of players. There's every chance I'll be back at some point - especially whilst Boris Johnson dithers in 'dilly-dally' style and maintains that us normal folk are 'banned' from stadiums.

However, I really enjoyed my first visit back to Oxford Street in a while.

Next Up: Who knows? It could be Grantham vs Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday. It could be at Rovers' youth team game at the weekend armed with a step-ladder or hiding in Teddy Sheringham’s tree costume, or it could be here again... if not somewhere completely different altogether!