Rossington Main look to build momentum against struggling Briggers

Rossington Main will be determined to avenge their 1-0 season-opening defeat to Worsbrough Bridge Athletic when they visit Park Road Stadium for Friday night football.

Rosso’s troubling start to the season, which saw the side lose three of their first four games in all competitions, now seems a distant memory, with only three further defeats suffered since.

As the campaign approaches its halfway point, Worsbrough will also be taking stock of a season that has been a tale of two halves, with the newly promoted Briggers sitting second in September before dropping to 15th ahead of Friday’s meeting.

Last time out, Rossington claimed a strong point on the road against Retford United in their first meeting since 2018, as Ollie Currie capped off an excellent month of goalscoring by drilling home a superb finish on the turn in the first half. However, his effort was cancelled out as United produced a battling second-half performance to take a share of the spoils.

October was a rollercoaster month for Rosso, beginning with a thrilling 4-0 victory over the league leaders, Dearne & District, before a disappointing run of three defeats, which culminated in them holding five at Frickley Athletic.

Main responded by beating promotion hopefuls Bottesford Town and progressing to the quarter-finals of the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup, earning another chance to revisit Frickley and put their 5-1 defeat right.

The results have left Rossington six points outside the play-off places, although Ben Hunter and Greg Young’s side have at least one game in hand on all the teams separating them from fifth. November also presents five fixtures against sides currently below them in the table.

Worsbrough, meanwhile, have added just four points since their impressive opening six league games, in which they scored 17 goals and collected 16 points to place them in second. Their recent struggles continued on Tuesday with a 5-1 away defeat to Knaresborough Town.

Their dip in form has coincided with the departure of manager Lee Morris to Frickley in late September. Morris, who led Bridge out of the NCEL Division One after 40 years at the level, was replaced by club legend Conor Glavin, who had made more than 200 appearances before taking charge as player-manager.

Glavin has had to navigate the exodus of a clutch of players, including talisman and scorer of the solitary goal in the reverse fixture Keelan Grist, who has followed his old boss to Athletic alongside Lewis O’Connor. Many other notable members of Morris’ squad have moved on to pastures new in the wake of the change in the dugout.  

With several of the key architects behind Worsbrough’s opening day victory now missing, Friday’s meeting promises to be a very different test for Rosso.