Monton come unstuck

AFC Monton travelled to Rochdale Sacred Heart for this important League fixture and sadly returned home with nothing to show for their valiant efforts but a feeling of disappointment and unjust defeat.
After taking the lead, Monton struggled to fully impose themselves against high flying Rochdale and unfortunately paid the price as the hosts found an equaliser just before half time in a forty five minutes dominated by the match official as two Rochdale players were sinbinned and a Monton player was dismissed.
The second half saw Rochdale increase their lead with two more goals to leave the ten men from Monton with a mountain to climb but they stuck to the task, managing to pull a goal back to narrow the deficit and set up a frantic final ten minutes.
As the game approached the final whistle, Monton were awarded a free kick just inside the Rochdale half of the pitch and magical Mark Baguley found the back of the hosts net with a tremendous thunderbolt from forty five yards out to level the score. The match official awarded the goal but on the way back to the re-start very strangely changed his decision and awarded the home side a free kick as he somehow saw an infringement on the Rochdale keeper.
Monton`s understandable protests inevitably led to two more players being dismissed as the match official left the pitch.
Overall, Monton showed great resilience and effort but ultimately were sadly let down by a somewhat inexperienced official.