Real Rosehill lost their touch in front of goal today and it cost them dearly.
The start was delayed by 15 minutes due to the frozen pitch. To make matters worse the grass in some areas including the wings was long and made wide play difficult.
Amici Athletic fielded a much stronger team than the same fixture 3 weeks ago and went ahead in the 8th minute following a good team move.
Rosehill could have been ahead before that with a number of chances including a "Taxi" moment from Joe Royall after hitting the post from 3 yards out.
Rosehill levelled eventually on 10 minutes with a tap in from 5 yards from James Sharp playing his first game in centre midfield.
Rosehill defended well and made chances but to no avail and for once seemed to lack the final clinical pass and finish.
Debutant Sam Derkson had an excellent game and kept the midfield buzzing. James Sharp had a great game too with his first venture into midfield.
On 70 minutes a tremendous strike from outside the box from Sam Derkson thundered into the net, a truly great goal.
Amici were giving a lot of verbal trying to wind the young Rosehill players up and at times the game got quite heated. That was their game plan and up to a certain point it worked.
Rosehill held it together until the end of normal time only to see 3 points become 1 with a hotly disputed headed own goal which bounced down from the crossbar over the line - Not sure about that one !
To lose out my a disputed own goal is one thing but to have it happen in the 94th minute tore at the hearts of the Rosehill players and they trudged off of the pitch dejected.
Not to single out individual players but 5 one on one's with the keeper went begging today and cost Real Rosehill 2 points and their 100% record.
Much is to be learnt from theis draw today. We need to take away the good points and develop them and to take the bad points and work hard to get it right for the next game.
On a final note credit to Adam Devlin who stayed on the pitch and played through the pain barrier with a very back injury.
All in all a good team display - solid at the back and buszzing in midfield, just the final clinical finsh today was missing.
Enough said onto the cup quarter final next week v Rusper Rovers and now only 2 games from a final appearance.
Game on the 21st v Waterside away is now a must win game if Real Rosehill are going to maintain their assault on being league winners.
Cheers.
Tone
