Hockey: Bolton 3 - 8 Rochdale Men's First's

Rochdale Men's Hockey First's

Rochdale First’s had two games in two days over the weekend, the first being an away trip to local opposition Bolton, which they won with a flattering scoreline.

Rochdale started the game with a quick tempo, closing down every Bolton attack early.
This paid off when Rochdale captain Michael Waddicor stole the ball from the Bolton midfield and ran through the centre of the pitch to enter the D. Waddicor was one-on-one with the Bolton keeper and when he saw him rushing out, calmly lifted the ball over him into the corner of the net.

Dave Gowers soon followed Waddicor on to the score sheet from a short corner pass from Mark Eden. The ball was deflected but the quick reactions of Gowers saw him dive to the floor and reverse the ball over the goal line.

James Shepherd added to the score line soon after with a solo effort, which saw him beat three players before spinning and putting the ball past the keeper with a reverse stick shot.

It looked as though it was going to be an easy afternoon for Rochdale, but that wasn’t to be. Rochdale began to relax and they allowed Bolton to press further up the pitch. This lead to mistakes which Bolton capitalised on scoring two goals.

The early part of the second saw Rochdale fail to step things up, and a mistake from defender Eden led to Bolton pinching the ball off him to scire.

Eden made amends when he received the ball on the edge of the D, took a Bolton defender on and smashed a strike past the keeper.

Rochdale sat back and played a counter attacking game catching Bolton out four times with well worked goals.

A second, for Gowers with a reverse stick strike.

Rob Lees made the score sheet as he touched the ball over the line from a Barry Gumbley shot that was already going in.

Waddicor got his second for the day after Sean Carney received the ball in the D and had plenty of time to shoot himself, but was unselfish when he saw Waddicor in a better position to put the ball over the line.

Shepherd then got his second of the match as Carney passed to Waddicor in the D, who held the ball up waited for Shepherd to get in the right position to finish with another reverse shot.

In the final minutes of the game Gumbley made possibly the pass of the season as he picked the ball up on the far left of the pitch, took a player on and managed to make a full cross field pass into the path of the sprinting Shepherd. Shepherd found Waddicor in the D but the Bolton keeper pulled off a great save to prevent the goal and stop Waddicor from getting his hat-trick.

Rochdale Captain Michael Waddicor said: "Today we made this game hard for ourselves. Even though the score line doesn’t makes it look that way. They had more of the possession than us, but the main thing is the three points, and the lads dug deep yet again to win them”

The Oulderhill Leisure Centre man-of-the-match went to Michael Waddicor.