Rossvale finish with share of spoils at Thorniewood

The match was actually ’Vale’s home game but was switched to Viewpark with the agreement of both sides.

The game was only four minutes old when Thorniewood created the match’s first opening.

From the Thorniewood ’keeper’s clearance the ball was flicked on from midfield to Anderson on the edge of the Rossvale penalty area. But despite a good first touch to steady himself Anderson choked his effort wide of Chris Calder’s left hand post.

Rossvale created their own first opportunity four minutes later.

Erald Krasniqi controlled the ball well inside the Thorniewood area from Ralph Gamba’s throw-in before laying the ball back to Corey Irvine whose goalbound strike from the edge of the box was blocked by a combination of both centre backs.

The opening goal came in 22 minutes. A long clearance by Rossvale keeper Calder caught the Thorniewood back line on their heels but not Krasniqi who was the quickest to react and raced clear of the Thorniewood centre backs before calmly slotting the ball beyond the outstretched legs of the ’keeper.

But Rossvale’s advantage lasted just two minutes as Law’s diagonal ball cut open the Rossvale defence and, with Calder racing from his line to narrow the angle, Lennon passed the ball beyond him into the corner of the net.

The second period was a non-event with both teams appearing to settle for the draw.

The only real exception to this came 10 minutes from time with the Thorniewood keeper pulling off two saves in quick succession, first from Gary Tussler and then from Ryan Coll who had latched on to the rebound from Tussler’s initial effort.