Hockey: Stockport Bramhall Ladies 3rds 1 - 2 Rochdale Ladies

Daisy Parton was named player of the match

This weekend Rochdale Ladies played a rearranged fixture away against Stockport Bramhall Ladies 3rds, and with several regular players missing it felt like half of their team was playing out of position, but even so they threw themselves into the match.

Overall it was a game of two halves, with Rochdale dominating the first. They were able to push high and hold the play and create many opportunities for themselves. Moon in particular had multiple chances on goal due to a combination of set-ups from her teammates and her own excellent reflexes. And there was another close call when O'Mahony was able to keep the ball in on the backline on the right hand side of the goal, resulting in Burrell getting a reverse strike on it only for the ball to go just the wrong side of right post.

The first goal came from a short corner awarded to Rochdale. Burrell injected the ball up to Pickering at the top of the D, who handed it off left to Knowles, who used a sweep to absolutely slam the ball in near the right post.

The second goal started with a sideline free hit on the left taken by Leech. She found Pickering in the midfield who crossed it to Parton, who ran the ball down the right wing - evading two defenders as she did - and once she'd entered the D she used a reverse hit to find a gap on left post to earn herself a goal.

However, by the second half Rochdale's lack of substitutes was starting to show and Stockport were able to push their advantage to get a goal themselves. More action took place in Rochdale's defence in the second half, but they were able to hold their ground well and retain their lead even so and break through to create some more of their own chances, but weren't able to secure any more goals.

The final score was 2-1, with Becky Knowles (1) and Daisy Parton (1) as Rochdale's goal scorers.

Player of the match was Daisy Parton.

Captain Collinson said: "I'm very happy with our effort in a very physical game with a couple of fabulous goals."

Rochdale's team:
Keeper; Sam Partington
Defence; Dionne Collinson, Claire Hoyle, Kieran Leech & Hannah Palmer
Midfield; Becky Knowles, Becki Moon, Daisy Parton & Roisin Pickering
Forwards; Katie Burrell & Anna O'Mahony