Rochdale Youth 2-3 Oldham Athletic Youth

Rochdale’s youngsters crashed out of the FA Youth Cup in the first round at the hands of near neighbours Oldham Athletic in front of a healthy crowd at Spotland. Godwin Abadaki and Ola Rabiu had given Dale a 2-1 lead after falling behind early on but 2 second half strikes by Kyle Riley settled the tie in favour of the Latics.

Oldham opened the scoring early in the game when home keeper Jordan Andrew could only parry a long range shot into the path of Sam Fitzgerald who guided the ball home.
Chris Beech’s side responded well and levelled in similar fashion when Luke Simpson spilled a Rabiu shot with Abadaki on hand to turn home the loose ball.

The goal of the game came moments later when Abadaki sent a raking cross field path towards Rabiu who controlled impeccably before heading goal wards. The winger cut inside his defender and curled a sweet strike beyond the keeper to give his side the lead.

Chris Beech was left seething with referee Mellor just before half time when Dimitri Tuanzebe was sent through on goal but was upended by keeper Simpson, who was booked for the challenge, but the official deemed the challenge outside the box and gave a freekick even though the stopper didn’t appear to leave his area!

Rabiu caused the Latics defence problems all evening and a wicked cross was somehow smothered off the line and cleared.

The home side were again the better side throughout the second period but it was Oldham that hit the back of the net. Riley saw Andrews off his line so chipped the keeper to level the score and the striker scored the winner with 25 minutes left to play with a well struck shot.

Dale had chances to level but couldn’t beat Simpson as Oldham held out for the win.

There were some standout performances from the Dale youngsters by Jamie Allen, Godwin Abadaki and Ola Rabiu and with first team manager Steve Eyre and his full first team squad watching from the stands, maybe we will see one or two break into the first team in the future.