Rosso’s first home game of the Northern Counties East League Premier 2025/26 season ended in a narrow one-goal defeat to the Dennyboys under the lights of the Kalkut’s Community Stadium.

Nathan Hunt’s finish into the bottom right corner in the dying seconds of the first 45 minutes proved to be all-important as Thackley headed back to West Yorkshire with all three points.

The opening ten minutes unfolded with a couple of chances here and there for Rosso. An early Cody Prior corner kick came back out to Prior who curled the ball back in and after multiple heads and bounces, Thackley escaped the danger. Minutes later Dylan Mantle made great use of a switching ball however, despite a low driven cross towards the back post, the Dennyboys escaped the danger once more.

Straight up the other end after Jordan Greaves provided the initial save in-between the sticks for Rosso, Brandon Murillo came to the rescue with a headed clearance off the line.

With a scarce amount of clear-cut chances and just when the scoreline looked to be staying goalless at the halfway stage, Thackley broke the deadlock on the 45+1 minute when against the run of play Hunt fired the ball into the bottom right-hand corner beyond the reach of Greaves.

After the break and following a Rosso corner, the ball bounced around dangerously in Thackley’s six-yard box however, no Blue shirt could make clean contact to test Liam Wilson in-goal for the Dennyboys.

Alex Washington thought he had doubled Thackley’s lead with just a quarter-of-an-hour to go when his long-range effort fired down from the crossbar and flirted around the goal line however, no indication that it had crossed the line was raised and play continued as normal.

With Rossington making all four of their outfield substitutions in attempt to get something from the game, the visitors continued to slow things down and make it tough for Rosso to find a break through.

On the 90+4 minute following a well worked move by Ross Hannah, Rosso had the ball in the back of the net however, this wasn’t to stand as the assistant referee raised his flag for offside.

In front of the 184 spectators at the home of Doncaster Non-League football and with almost ten minutes of stoppage time played, the referee called an end to proceedings which saw the visitors take all three points back to Dennyfield.

Rosso XI: Greaves (GK), Murillo, Sutton, Langton (C), Hough (81’ Young), Sherburn, Prior, Suleiman (59’ Hannah), Mantle, King (72’ Noble), Bowes (72’ Micklethwaite).

Unused Substitutes: Callum Fielding (GK)