Rochdale Ladies 5 - 0 Oldham Ladies 3rds

Gemma Hodcroft (right) scored Rochdale's fourth goal

After following their two opening draws with a win last weekend, Rochdale were building some good momentum for the season, and with their local derby with Oldham 3rds at home this weekend (12 October) they were planning to continue the trend.

They wasted no time by scoring within the first minute as Hodcroft got the ball up the midfield and passed it off to Burrell in the D who took her shot with a hard hit into the backboard.

Bolstered, Rochdale continued to create chances. Moon stopped an Oldham attack down her wing and handed the ball off to Hodcroft who worked with Pickering who was able to fire it into the D. Burrell was able to control the bounce used to get the ball over the defenders' sticks before passing it to the far post but Black was unable to get enough of a touch to deflect it into the goal.

Rochdale had such a strong defence that several of their chances started with their defenders, and this time it was Collinson who swooped in to intercept a Oldham pass before launching the ball into space on the right wing for Pickering to run onto.

She saw Knowles in the D and passed her the ball, for Knowles to sweep it the rest of the way to the far post where Black refused to miss another goal and knocked the ball over the line.

Rochdale kept the pressure up, as Knowles tackled for the ball in midfield, allowing Collinson to claim and control it enough to nudge to Leech on the left wing, who passed it back and forth with Midani to work their way into the D. Unfortunately Oldham's defence rallied and were able to clear the ball.

Everyone was working hard, and it paid off for Rochdale when Knowles took a long corner and did a short pass to Collinson, who quickly passed it right back to allow Knowles to slam it straight into the D where Black had found a lot of space with just the keeper to beat.

Black kept her cool and dropped her stick to whack the ball into the goal just as the keeper made to kick it clear, but Black was just that bit faster and claimed her second goal.

Later, a free hit just outside the right-hand side of the D was taken by Pickering, who followed the curve of the D around until she was almost at the baseline before lifting the ball over the stick of the defender in her way to reach Hodcroft, who was able to lift her stick and knock the ball into the goal.

Since she scored twice in the first half, everyone had challenged Black to bag herself a hat trick, and she wasn't about to disappoint.

With Knowles and Pickering trading passes together to outmanoeuvre the Oldham midfield, they got the ball into the D and Knowles used the top of the D as a pivot point to re-route the ball to Black, who had been afforded enough space to lift the ball just high enough to sail over the sticks in its way and into the back of the net to bring Rochdale up to five goals.

Final score was 5-0, with Lily Black (3), Katie Burrell (1) and Gemma Hodcroft (1) as Rochdale's goal scorers.

The player of the match was Lily Black.

Captain Collinson said: "I'm very proud to have captained this bunch of wonderful ladies today. There's nothing better than a bit of friendly local rivalry and coming out with three points.”

Rochdale's team:
Keeper; Sam Partington.
Defence; Dionne Collinson, Claire Hoyle, Kieran Leech & Becki Moon.
Midfield; Gemma Hodcroft, Becky Knowles, Daisy Parton & Roisin Pickering.
Forwards; Lily Black & Katie Burrell.
Substitutes: Fee Lyssejko, Lois Midani & Hannah Palmer.