|
Dr
Martens Western Division
Saturday,
24th April 2004
Attendance
| 282
Rugby
United |
2 |
1 |
Cirencester
Town |
|
Marsden
28
Williams
30 |
|
Mayo
45
Hopkins
missed pen 60 |
| Match
Entertainment |
 |
| Match
Summary |
Entertaining
win |
Star
Man | Rory Squire |
With
a bit more space in the centre of the park along
with Dutton, Rory rallied around winning the ball
and distributed the ball well |
For
so much of the season, Rugby have tiptoed through games
at Butlin Road, but with the pressure off, Valley finally
turned on the style for their final home game of the
season against second-placed Cirencester Town.
Without
Robbie Beard and with only the genuine target of gaining
a slightly higher league position, Tony Dobson played
with an adventurous 3-4-3 formation with John Douglas
and Dave Pearson stepping in the Michael Hegarty and
Beard, and long-term injury Craig Herbert replacing
Andy Commander at the back. The onus was on the Centurions
to perform as they still had a great change of clinching
the title.
It
looked as though it would be a tight time from the outset
with both teams engaged in a midfield battle, but Craig
Dutton and Rory Squire appeared to be getting on top.
Cirencester has some early pressure, but the final ball
was lacking on most occasions.
Rugby
took the lead after twenty-eight minutes when Dave Pearson
did well to round full-back Michael McEntegarty on the
right wing before cutting the ball back to Justin
Marsden who struck the ball low under goalkeeper
Paul Thompson, who perhaps should have done better,
for his twelfth goal of the season.
The
Valley crowd was spurring the team on after Marsden's
goal, and just two minutes later, the home fans had
more to cheer about when Rugby made it two. Jamie
Williams cut in the left on a mazy run before he
was half challenged on the end of the area, but the
ball bounced back to Williams who fired the ball low
into the corner of the net from 18 yards.
Cirencester
were evidently rocked by Rugby's two goals and were
panicking on the ball, and forward Dave Pearson was
causing a few further problems for them. He came
close on two occasions before the end of the first half,
but he saw his efforts whistle past the post.
Jody
Bevan came close to reducing the arrears with a first
time effort but it flew over the crossbar while Bevan
missed a good opportunity from a Shaun Wimble cross
but he could only head wide.
With
three up-front, Rugby were able to carve out chances
from simple direct balls from the back with Jon Douglas
battling away. One ball was flicked on into the
path of Marsden who had the edge over McEntegarty and
Marsden appeared to be bundled over by the Cirencester
defender but the referee was not interested.
Seconds
later, the visitors moved quickly up the field and midfielder
Adam Mayo got on the end of a knockdown just
outside the area and rifled the ball into the top corner
leaving Jason Pearcey motionless.
At
the start of the second half, a mistake from Gary Moran
allowed room on the left for substitute Scott Griffin
and his ball across the box was brilliantly cut out
by Adam Hart who made a saving diving header as Gareth
Hopkins looked bound to score.
A
whipped Williams corner from the right was headed just
over by Squire while a
neat interchange between fellow Rugby-born youngsters
Marsden and Douglas culminated in the latter producing
a crisp drive that forced Thompson into a good save.
It
looked as though Cirencester would equalise when top
scorer Hopkins weaved his way through the Rugby defence
from the right-hand side of the penalty area, but goalkeeper
Jason Pearcey made a fantastic stop at his feet inside
the six-yard box to deny him.
From
the resulting corner, it appeared that the ball was
handled in midair, and whilst the referee missed it
and most of the crowd thought it was the hand of Hopkins,
the assistant waved his flag furiously to indicate that
he saw a Rugby hand hit the ball. It looked as
though yet another dubious penalty would ruin another
game for Rugby, but this time Gareth
Hopkins completely mis-kicked from the spot
and the ball bounced a couple of times before going
a yard wide of the post.
After
this miss, the visitors seem to accept that they had
missed their chance to clinch the game and potentially
the title, with Redditch losing today, and they rarely
threatened with Rugby on top for the last half hour.
Substitute
Kevin Charley made some nice touches, and on one occasion
he tricked his way into the area before the ball appeared
to clearly hit a Cirencester defender's hand, but the
referee was not interested.
After
a flurry of seemingly unnecessary bookings including
one for Gary Redgate, who was making a welcome return
for his first match since November, followed as Rugby
eased three points to take the season's total to seventy
points with one game to play.
Rugby
United | Pearcey, Moran, Williams, Hart (Redgate),
Commander, Rutherford, Squire, Dutton, Douglas, Marsden,
Hegarty, Pearson (Charley) Subs | Thomas, Hegarty
Bookings
|
Rutherford, Williams, Moran, Redgate |
