ON AN unsurprisingly frosty morning Ross Juniors faced their first action since November and stormed to a victorious win. Ross started brightly and an early Jamie Warwick corner was met forcefully by Tom Burford to give Ross the lead within five minutes. The game settled down and it was another 20 minutes before Ross extended their lead, they did so emphatically scoring three goals in as many minutes, Ben Hall made up for an earlier open goal miss by netting two of the goals with Will Barker also netting during this purple patch. In the 32 minute Ben Hall completed his hat trick with a neat finish from an Andy Francis pass. Before Half time Ross compounded the embarrassment for Unique scoring two more courtesy of Matt Hall and Will Barker. Matt Halls the pick of the two with a marauding run that ended in a very calm finish.
The second half started as the first ended with free flowing football and Juniors scoring at will, within 10 minutes Ben Hall added another two to his tally, the pick of the two a brave one- -on-one which ended in Hall getting clattered. Charlie's Bar Man of the match and five goal hero Ben Hall was rested to a rousing applause from the ever present Juniors crowd who once again braved the cold with Andy French happy to be returning from injury.
During the game the back four of Matt Hall, Matt Davies, Tom Burford and Steve French were solid but seldom tested and Ross goal keeper Shaun Creed yawned his way to a clean sheet. Will Barker and Jamie Warwick impressively bossed central midfield while Joe Loftus and Andy Francis provided width and left Unique finding the only way to stop them was to chop them down.
The chopping continued and Juniors won a dubious penalty with Tom Burford appearing to go down very easy, despite winning the pre match penalty shoot out (Whilst Ross waited for the referee) Alistair Jones allowed hat trick hunting Will Barker to take the penalty, Unique's goal keeper made an impressive stop from Barkers spot kick, however despite his age Barker was sharp enough to tuck away the rebound and complete his hat trick.
The best goal of the game came courtesy of a sublime volley from Ted Loftus from around 40 yards. Things were wrapped up when fresh from injury Andy French managed to scramble a saved shot from the tireless Joe Loftus.