With FC United of Manchester coming to town there was great anticipation and excitement around Rushall Olympic FC and the game certainly lived up to expectations.
Dales Lane, Rushall Olympic FC’s ground, hosted this EvoStik League Northern Premier Division match and a record crowd of 1056 saw The Pics begin the match in a lively fashion. The Rushall men pressured FC United’s defence and this was rewarded when Alex Melbourne popped up in the 10th minute to take full advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper James Spencer.
Although withstanding some pressure from the opposition in periods of the game Rushall really held their own in this tight encounter. The Pics lively forward, Luke Bottomer, tested United’s goalkeeper from range with a powerful strike and towards the end of the half Chris Gemmell produced some fine saves to prevent FC United from coming back into this match.
Gemmell started the second half in the same fashion by pulling off a magnificent save to stop a header from The Reds and deserved his luck when he saw the rebound be put in the back of the net only for the linesman to flag for offside. The Pics continued to battle on even after going down to ten men with 15 minutes to go when the referee harshly adjudged Martyn Naylor to have got the man instead of the ball in a hard but fair challenge.
Even with this decision, Rushall managed to hold on to record a memorable 1-0 win over FC United.
With 31 matches played this season Rushall now sit 8th in the league which is a fantastic achievement considering their promotion last year. Next up for Rushall Olympic FC is an away trip to local rivals Chasetown in the Staffordshire Senior Cup.
There are plenty more great matches to be played this season so why not give The Pics a go by coming down to Dales Lane for the next home match against Kendall Town on Saturday 10th March (3pm Kick off) With low admission prices there is great value guaranteed and certainly an afternoon full of football entertainment to look forward to.
Click here to read more about Rushall Olympic FC or click here to take a look at their website for news, fixtures and results.
