Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday 12th September 2020
Although Staveley emerged victorious from this game thanks to Matty Davies' solo second half strike, it was a decent overall display by Rozzo who put up an admirable fight after their poor start.
The higher-division visitors, who were at the top of the NCEL (Premier Division) before last season was acrimoniously curtailed, looked as though they might run up a cricket score when they opened the scoring inside two minutes with a striker hammering a shot past Callum Fielding.
That wasn't to be the case, however, as Ben Hunter's team battled their way back into proceedings and on a different day they may have toppled their opponents.
Fielding produced a smart save to prevent further damage around the quarter-hour mark but after that incident, Rossington steadily grew in confidence with Jack Watson unfortunate to be denied with a header which drew a good save only a few minutes later before Cameron Barnett was off-target with an attempt after he was allowed to run forward and pull the trigger from outside the area.
Despite the 0-1 scoreline at half-time, it took just under 10 minutes of the second period for Rozzo to deservedly get themselves back on level terms - the goal coming courtesy of some good work by Jason Stokes whose clever movement and neat through ball fed Jordan Buckham who emphatically smashed his shot home.
With Rossington on top by this stage, they enjoyed two further chances in quick succession; Watson drawing a save on the hour mark before he burst through again a couple of minutes later and saw his intended pass to a team-mate cut out by a Staveley defender.
The visitors, donning their luminous orange strip, soon wasted a gilt-edged golden opportunity when some good movement of the ball pierced the Blues' back-line. A pass was eventually played to a striker inside the box who contrived to somehow blast the ball wide when he had the goal at his mercy and it seemed for all the world that he'd score.
Just after one former Doncaster Rovers scholar in Cameron Barnett (who had a decent game in midfield against his old club) was taken off with a hamstring injury, it was another ex-DRFC youngster in the shape of Matty Davies subsequently won it for Staveley with a quarter-of-an-hour to go.
The wingman-cum-midfielder, who'd come back onto the pitch as a substitute having also appeared during the first 45 minutes, carried the ball forward with a 20-yard run and having weaved into the box, he managed to get a shot away on his weaker left-foot which trickled past the 'keeper, was just inside the post, and went into the net.
Although he had to go off again only a couple of minutes later, having been on the receiving end of an ill-judged tackle, his goal proved enough to be the difference between the sides and thus give the higher-division Trojans the win.
Overall, it was another enjoyable day at Oxford Street and good to see quite a few familiar faces and ex-DRFC scholars around the place. Myron Gibbons, Joe Pugh and Matt Parkin (all now on Staveley's books) were present at the game though unable to play for different reasons.
Although this is a second defeat in four days for Rozzo, they've definitely got some decent, technical players - including also the diminutive right-back who impressed me as well.
Next game: Who knows? Possibly at Oxford Street next Saturday, but can we trust Boris Johnson to not lock us all down again in the next seven days?
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