Although performances matter, its results that truly count, and North End will be pleased to have come away with the 3 points today despite being below the standards they set themselves for much of the game. The difference was the finishing of leading scorer Jamie Rainford.
Radcliffe had created a couple of half chances in the opening ten minutes, with Matt Russell blocking Matthew Davies’ low drive with his body and Greg Hall saving Nathan Valentine’s angled shot. However, Rainford’s first opportunity was clinically taken in the 10th minute to give the Hillmen the advantage.
The ball was played over the back line and Rainford found himself at the edge of the area with a yard of room to manoeuvre. He watched the ball carefully as it fell in front of him and then took a first time snapshot into the corner of the net in a sharp finish that surprised the keeper.
Radcliffe nearly hit back when Kevin Mcgrath’s downward header caused mild panic in the Glossop North End box, but eventually the home side got a grip on the game, and only looked like adding to their lead before half time.
The flanks were proving fruitful and crosses looked like providing a goal, Astley Mulholland going closest when his swivelled shot was denied by a combination of goalkeeper and post.
They couldn’t have had a better start to the second half though when in the 51st minute a corner was swung in from the right. It just cleared the top of Dave Young’s head, but fell to the feet of Rainford, just inside the corner of the box and inexplicably with acres of space and eons of time to pick his spot. He did that, curling a shot into the far netting, his 9th of the season.
He nearly made it 10 with a free kick just over the bar minutes later, but from there Glossop seemed to relax, and when Michael Bowler turned a dangerous low cross behind for a corner, it was almost signalling a sea change.
On 61 minutes Martyn Andrews tripped a Radcliffe player in the box and Sam McMahon stepped up to beat Hall with the spot kick.
The game went flat for a spell but Radcliffe were pressing harder and with 15 minutes to go Greg Hall was forced into a terrific save low at his post when a whipped free kick was head backwards by Bowler.
They continued to press, without creating too much, but deep into injury time substitute Elliott Rokka fell dramatically in the box claiming he had been impeded. Very few had a clear view of the incident, so the Glossop faithful held their breath and looked towards the referee who ignored the appeals and played on. It secured another three points and continued a very impressive start to the season. There are no asterisks suggesting how they played next to the Hillmen’s points tally of 22 from 10 games.
| Name | GLS | AST | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | ||
| 2 | — | ||
| 3 | — | ||
| 4 | — | ||
| 5 | — | ||
| 6 | — | ||
| 7 | — | ||
| 8 | — | ||
| 9 | 2 | ||
| 10 | — | ||
| 11 | — |
| Name | GLS | AST | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | — | ||
| 13 | — | ||
| 14 | — |
