Finnair Manchester League Premier Division

Sacred Heart 2 - Elton Fold 1

NEW Year, same old story. Can't score, struggle to win.

Repetive and frustrating it may seem, but on this occasion never have Fold dominated a game for such long periods and ended up with nothing to show for it.

Paying their first visit to Heart's Fox Park ground in Rochdale, Elton once again couldn't put the ball in the net after virtually camping in the home side's half for large parts of the game.

Fold's lack of goals at this level is a continuing source of concern and has been for a few seasons now, despite a varied number of personnel and permutations.

Regular net-hitters, rightly or wrongly, are paid the kind of wedge that would make Mrs. Beckham smile, but, as Fold have no such 'war chest' available then it's 'make do with what's on offer' and keep striving to improve on that, while

continuing to search for an, as yet, undiscovered gem.

But goalscorers are only as good as the service they get and, despite their superiority, Fold's final ball into the danger area, particularly in the second half, too often just wasn't good enough as they came up against a packed defence.

Impressive

Despite being awarded their first penalty of the season when the impressive Keith Ingham was brought down in the 28th minute, Fold still managed to press the self-destruct button later in the game.

Centre half Dave Wilkes crashed home the spot-kick equaliser to top a fine individual performance, never flinching a tackle and always willing to push forward and support colleagues in front of him, qualities that can also be

attributed to another defender, Steve Dearden.

The small, muddy pitch meant that 'route one' was inevitable rather than acceptable and Elton started the brightest.

Heart showed their intentions though by playing three up front, forcing Fold to re-organise their defensive strategy.

It still didn't stop the home side taking the lead in the 10th minute. When the ball was lost too easily, a quick break down

the left saw it pulled back to the edge of the box where Fold were slow to react and Humphries made no mistake with a low drive into the far bottom corner of the net.

The visitors came storming back and Dearden was unfortunate to see his headed 'goal' disallowed for an infringement by a team-mate, whilst Ingham was also desperately unlucky to see two cracking dead-ball kicks curl

inches the wrong side of the post.

Fold deservedly drew level and must have thought luck was with them, courtesy of the penalty award, but a crazy, five-minute spell early in the second half put paid to that notion.

The niggly, physical encounter finally erupted in the 53rd minute when the Rochdale side's midfielder, Kershaw, launched into a brutal 'over the top' challenge on Dearden's knee that left the Elton defender writhing in agony and,

inevitably, ignited a mini-brawl involving a dozen players.

When everything had cooled down, Kershaw received a red card, but the referee singled out Fold's Stefan Shaw for an early shower without punishing anybody else in the melee.

But three minutes later calamity struck as 'keeper Steve Crossley raced out of his area to clear the ball from the onrushing Heart forward Holt.

The Fold custodian got there first, but completely missed the ball with his swinging leg and Holt had the simple task of rolling the ball into the empty net for what proved to be the winner.

It's unfair to be too harsh on Crossley as he has often been the team's saviour in the past and he could quite justifiably question the antics at the other end of the field.

Elton now threw caution to the wind as they pushed men forward in numbers, but Heart also defended in depth and had little problem cutting out mis-directed crosses.

Consequently, Fold's biggest threat came from

Ingham's free-kicks, but even they hardly troubled the 'keeper as they went wide or into the wall.

For all their efforts, Elton just couldn't get the vital breakthrough and returned home yet again bitterly disappointed to have lost a game they should have won by a street against a side that sit comfortably in third place in the table.

The Reserves game against Pennington Reserves was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

There's a double header tomorrow against Dukinfield Town with the first team at home and the reserves away. Both kick-off at 2pm.