Roselands Cruise Through in Lidstone Cup Derby: Local Football Round-Up
Main Picture: Roselands and Hookhills in the Lidstone Cup on Sat 6th Feb – (c) MiraclePR
Storm Imogen proved that she was no fan of local football either as she decimated the fixture list once more last weekend, reducing the action to three SDFL matches, one cup tie and two league matches.
There was a double bill at Paignton Community College where Roselands’ Lidstone Cup First Round tie, against local rivals Hookhills United, was followed by a League One clash between Paignton Villa and Buckland Athletic Thirds under the floodlights.
The cup match was switched to Roselands’ 3G pitch to allow the game to go on after last weeks postponement. Roselands were playing in their unfamiliar third strip of orange, but their distinctive style of play shone through.
Despite players missing from both sides and the difficult conditions, the two teams made a big effort to get the ball down and play some good football.
However it wasn’t long before Roselands’ quality started to shine through when they took the lead after striker Max Prestwood chased down a through ball to force a Hookhills defender to put the ball past his own ‘keeper.
Roselands’ passing game continued to cause their opponents problems for long spells of the match but Hookhills centre-back pairing of Steve Parkin and Gary Rivers were working overtime to stem the flow. But it wasn’t long before a Marc Hagland flick allowed Prestwood again to volley home a second Roselands goal on the half hour. The pressure continued on the Hookhills goal and, a couple of minutes before half-time, a neat three man move ended with Roselands’ top scorer Luke Steward firing a third into the roof of the net.
The second half continued much as the first with Hookhills, led by Grant Fawke, battling away and mustering an occasional attack. But a fourth Roselands goal wasn’t too far away and that came in the 54th minute, a cross from Mitchell McMillan headed back by Jerrad Routledge for Hagland to volley into the bottom left corner from 12 yards. A fifth goal followed just ten minutes later with a ball played through the right channel allowing Prestwood to slide the ball home from a tight angle. With conditions worsening by the minute a McMillan corner from the left found midfielder and man of the match Tom Dunlop who headed home powerfully for goal number six.
Roselands join Harbertonford, Paignton Saints and South Brent in the quarter-finals.
Paignton Villa took the lead against defending champions Buckland Thirds with a goal in the first twenty minutes, but Adam Whitmore restored parity on the half-hour mark and Buckland finished the half strongly with Matthew Briant going close.
Paignton Villa’s goalkeeper prepares to launch upfield. (c)MiraclePR.com
The rain began to ease after the break and Bucks thought they had taken an early second-half lead when they put the ball in the net; but the goal was ruled out for offside. Then a long ball from the back saw a Yellows forward get the better of the Villa defender before passing the ball across the six-yard box for young Owen Yarnall to side-foot into the corner with 50 minutes played. Paignton defended well in spells, and created a couple of half-chances of their own, but could do nothing about Yarnall’s second goal, a fine 25-yard strike, which effectively sealed the points with 15 minutes remaining. Substitute Newman put a gloss on the scoreline with a late fourth goal. Buckland move up to second, level on points with Chudleigh and with a game spare.
The other match was in Division Four where Ashburton Reserves hosted bottom of the table Ilsington Villa. The Ashes scored four for the third match in succession, winning 4-2 to move closer to safety and leave winless Villa still rooted.
Please feel free to send your match reports to [email protected] for inclusion in our weekly round-ups and the Sunday Independent.
