
Rams bow out in Cup semi-final
A depleted Ramsbottom United side were denied a place in the Doodson Sport Cup Final by their Yorkshire visitors, going down 2-1 to Farsley in the semi-final.
A depleted Ramsbottom United side were denied a place in the Doodson Sport Cup Final by their Yorkshire visitors, going down 2-1 to Farsley in the semi-final.
A very tired bunch of Rams players ended a very satisfying week on a positive note with a well deserved, if somewhat, nervy win against a determined but all but doomed Belper Town team. It will be a great shame to see this well organised, welcoming and well appointed club return to Division One after just one season.
It took 108 days and 11 league encounters but the Rams finally secured an Evo-Stik Premier Division success with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Stourbridge down in the Black Country on Tuesday evening.
The realistic assessment of this game, harsh but fair, is that the result flattered an insipid Rams performance, A touch more precision from the home team would have seen them at least double their goal tally and the Rams goal, special as it was, literally came from nowhere. All that was needed to turn a poor show into a horror show would have been the appearance from the subs bench of Vincent Price and Peter Cushing!
With a third defeat in their last four outings, Ramsbottom United have been drawn inexorably back into the relegation mire following their narrow 1-0 loss to promotion-chasing Ashton United on a warm, spring day in Tameside.
The Rams somehow managed to grab a draw from the jaws of victory on Thursday by conceding two goals in the last two minutes of a see-saw game.
It would take a level of optimism last exhibited by King Canute when trying to turn back the waves to detect any sign of an upturn in fortunes for the Rams after another dispiriting defeat.
What is to be made of this confounding and, to no little extent, concerning result?
This was a very comfortable and largely untroubled victory for FC United of Manchester, who are now just three points away from assured promotion.
If there were any doubts that the managements and team see themselves in other than a vicious fight to retain their Evo-Stik Northern Premier League status, never mind the games in hand, the approach to this game should consign them to the rubbish bin.
Compared with the previous three games, even in continuing defeat, this was an improved performance from the Rams and one which offered at least a shard of optimism of awakening from the nightmare.
Two moments of individual brilliance in the last 20 minutes saved the Rams from a defeat in a dark, dour, ill-tempered match. The psychological boost of avoiding defeat will be greater than the point, important as that is.
By far the most assured and accomplished 45 minutes of football in the current era saw the Rams grab a well deserved and valuable three points at a wide open and windswept Grantham Town on Saturday.
The Rams will be bitterly disappointed to have lost this game having beaten the visitors in the Black Country only four days earlier.
If Saturday's performance had the nervous, and possibly the managers, peering apprehensively from behind the couch, this was full on 'When Frankenstein met Dracula'.
Apart from the result and some much needed game time, the most significant outcome from a cold and gloomy night could well be the emergence of new signing Donal McDermott, who only joined the club on the afternoon of the match.