Rossington Main 3-2 Retford

Rossington Main 3-2 Retford

Northern Counties East League (Division 1)

Tuesday 29th September 2020

This was a deserved first win of the campaign for Rossington Main though they made hard work of it against a Retford side who delivered an underwhelming performance.

The visitors led at the interval courtesy of Gareth Davies' finish but Main stormed back to seal three points with Jack Watson, Tyla Bell and Jordan Buckham all getting their names on the score-sheet.

Maybe I expected too much from Retford, who'd taken four points from their first two outings - including a win over East Hull in which they scored six goals, but they were put on the back foot for large swathes of proceedings and flattered to deceive. Rozzo played well and deserved to win this game.

The hosts began brightly with Jack Watson being thwarted thanks to some good goalkeeping in the first couple of minutes and they knocked the ball about well in the early stages - going close again following a goalmouth scramble on the quarter-hour mark.

Retford, donning an all-orange strip, eventually battled their way into the game and took the lead around the half-hour mark as Gareth Davies capitalised on a defensive mistake, beat an out-rushing home 'keeper and subsequently tapped into an unguarded goal.

A one-goal lead would have been doubled not long afterwards had one of the visiting players managed to put a shot on target following an attack which the hosts didn't convincingly deal with.

As the game approached the halfway point, Rozzo's performance was slacking and they'd seemingly run out of ideas; in spite of their bright start the 0-1 scoreline was all too familiar and a substitution was made at the interval with Tyla Bell being introduced to the action.

It heralded better fortunes as the Blues immediately began to play on the front foot again, push back their opponents and knock the ball around better. A back-peddling Retford 'keeper was almost beaten when he had to tip away a dangerous goalbound cross-cum-shot but he could do nothing about the eventual equaliser as right-back Elliott Walker whipped a perfect, teasing cross into the box at a superb height for Watson who glanced the ball over the 'keeper and into the net.

The confidence in Ben Hunter's team was now evident for everyone to see and some more positive play resulted in a spot-kick on 69 minutes which was duly dispatched by Bell.

However, Rozzo's lead lasted just a matter of minutes as they presented Retford with a gilt-edged chance to level things up when they gave away a poor penalty. The visitors' big frontman named Will Tomlinson (who has a very similar physique to Jon Parkin) stepped up and rifled a powerful effort into the top corner, giving the 'keeper absolutely no chance, to make it 2-2 with around a quarter-of-an-hour to go.

Even though I'm a veteran of 997 competitive games in English football, I'm still capable of making schoolboy mistakes. Leaving a few minutes before the full-time whistle always carries risks with it and on this occasion it proved costly as I missed the winning goal described on Rozzo's Twitter feed as a 'worldie strike' by Jordan Buckham. I'll have to take their word for it!

Regardless, it was a deserved win for Main ahead of what will be a tough match away at top of the table Campion on Saturday, whilst Retford (who can surely play better?) will be hoping for a better result in their home clash against Winterton.

On a personal level, unless 'Uncle Boris' and his stupid mates come up with more bull sh*t restrictions to our everyday lives, then I'll hopefully reach the landmark of having seen 1,000 competitive games in the English football system at some point before the end of next month.

I just won't count any games in a clubhouse at an 'elite' club where there's a live screening of a football match on an 'unsafe for spectators' adjacent pitch... as will be the case when Wealdstone host Chesterfield in the National League at the weekend!

Next up: Possibly a game somewhere near Manchester on Saturday.