COLNE CURSE STRIKES AGAIN
Tom Hoyle is pulled down in the area but unseen by the officials.
For anybody absorbing our pre-match preview, quite a lot. The compact, rudimentary and spectacular Holt House ground, situated on a hillside opposite the town centre, has been a graveyard of various Rams teams over the years. The visitors hadn’t won there since 2016 – surely a chance to put things right?
It was not to be, on a night of frustration and disappointment, for the team and supporters alike.
Key moments in games set the tone and this was the case here. The Rams started brightly and opened the Colne defence, a large gap appeared – but no shot was thrashed goalwards – as unnecessary touches led to the danger being cleared.
The dismay of the healthy and noisy Rams support was matched by delight from the adjacent Colne faithful. Their team visibly grew into the game, suddenly they were sprinting into challenges and first to every ball.
Ramsbottom, meanwhile, began resorting to aimless punts downfield and a series of misplaced touches and passes.
It was no surprise when Colne took the lead around the half hour. A well worked corner, driven to the far post – another hard low cross back across the box and then a third which hurtled past Rose in the Ramsbottom goal.
A wake-up call for the traveling team but only the precursor to a further series of ineffective rugby style ‘up and unders’, which did little to trouble the Colne central defence. On the rare occasions the Rams did choose to get the ball down it did cause problems, but invariably, a tug of the shirt brought play to stand still, and the free kicks invariably wasted.
Just before half time Colne very nearly doubled the lead. A powerful shot appeared to be heading towards the top corner before an arcing and an acrobatic gloved hand from Rams best player, Rose, pushed the ball onto the bar, and it flashed away.
The consensus at the break was that this was a desperately poor first-half performance.
Despite no substitutes being made the Rams did improve markedly, albeit from a very low baseline. The ball began to be played to feet and they did create some fluid moves – without causing too much anxiety for the home defence.
Then, a second key moment when a lifeline was handed to visitors on the hour. A free kick, which many thought outside the box, was deemed by the linesman to be inside – and thus a penalty.
Oumar Camara, just on a substitute and scorer in two previous games – hit it hard and low. Unfortunately, the keeper guessed right and made a fine save to keep the score at one nil to the home side.
Feelings that it wasn’t to be the Rams night intensified with a series of niggles, and the visitors seemed to run out of ideas. Colne could even have added to the lead with a couple of dangerous breakaways towards the end.
And when the net was found the ref had already blown for an infringement and our bogey ground had, once again, come back to haunt us.
Manager Steve Wilkes was understandably frustrated: “Surprised and disappointed with the players attitudes, especially in the first half.
“Everyone knows that in this league there are no easy games but credit to Colne, they wanted it more than we did. It’s a reality check for the players and management.
“I’ll take some of the blame as we made four changes from Saturday but certain players needed a rest.
“We’ve started the season well so we put the Colne game behind us and prepare for another tough game on Saturday”.
RAMSBOTTOM UNITED: Rose, Radcliffe, Walder, Teague, Hayhurst (Kandeke 76mins), Winstanley, Jackson (Camara 59mins), L.Sephton (McEvoy 80mins), Hoyle, Soares (Whyte 24mins), Chingwaro (S.Sephton 59mins)
Att: 250
