Stunning away win for Trafford at Rossendale (From Messenger Newspapers)

Stunning away win for Trafford at Rossendale

1:56pm Monday 1st March 2010

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Rossendale United 1 Trafford 8

TRAFFORD took full advantage of United’s catalogue of disasters to record a stunning 8-1 victory in their Unibond League clash at Dark Lane on Saturday.

The home team’s tale of woe started in the warm up when goalkeeper Tom Brocklehurst suffered a migraine and his place between the sticks was taken by centre forward Sam Heap.

Despite this, United started brightly and after eight minutes they were awarded a rather dubious penalty when Trafford left back Paul Ashton was adjudged to have handled.

Danny Ellis drove the ball hard and low but visiting keeper Tom Read produced a superb save to parry the shot, Ellis blasting the rebound over the bar with the goal at his mercy.

Trafford took the lead in the 17th minute in bizarre fashion, goalkeeper Heap carelessly dropping the ball at the feet of Glyn Barker who had the simplest of tasks in side-footing into the empty net.

To make matters worse for the home side, skipper Tom Clarkson was then dismissed for abusive language when trying to claim that Heap had been impeded.

Four minutes later Barker struck again when he headed home from just six yards after neat work by Scott Barlow.

Barlow then had two goals disallowed for marginal offside decisions before United reduced the arrears with a magnificent goal, Tom Smith cracking a glorious drive from 25 yards past the helpless Read.

However, even that goal was surpassed in the 39th minute when Shelton Payne swung a corner from the right deep beyond the far side of the penalty area and Scott Metcalfe connected beautifully with a stunning volley that flashed into the top corner.

Regular goalkeeper Brocklehurst recovered from his ailment to replace Heap and in the 44th minute left his line to save from Payne.

Deep into injury time United were punished once more for their indiscipline when Tom Smith was shown a red card for dissent and so the Lancashire outfit were forced to play the whole of the second half with just nine men.

The second period became a procession and it was simply a matter of whether Trafford could reach double figures.

Paul Ashton set the ball rolling with a surging run in the 51st minute that took him past three defenders before coolly lifting the ball over the advancing Brocklehurst.

The home keeper produced fine saves to deny Barlow and Payne but was powerless to prevent substitute Greg Hall making it 5-1 with a neat shot into the bottom corner from close range.

The bombardment on the home goal continued and in the 68th minute Scott Barlow drove hard and low into the bottom corner before Payne made it seven with a coolly taken penalty.

The scoring was completed four minutes from time when Scott Metcalfe broke clear down the left and crossed low to the back post where substitute Marvin McDonald had the simplest of tap ins.

Trafford will be hoping to capitalise on this victory on Saturday when they entertain Leigh Genesis at Shawe View in a Unibond League Division One North encounter kicking off at 3pm.

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