Rochdale Men’s Hockey Seconds 3 - 0 Preston Fifths

Rochdale Men's Hockey Club Seconds

Rochdale Seconds won a crucial game against Preston Fifths on Saturday - the biggest game of Rochdale's season so far.

Preston are the only team to have taken points off Rochdale this season with the draw in the opening game. Since then, Preston have always been in Rochdale’s shadow and one of only two teams who could realistically beat them to the title.

The game started at a frenetic pace and it was clear right from the push back that Preston had come to do what was needed, with an early attempt on the Rochdale goal.

Rochdale stuck to their game plan and slowly gained more control. Fred Stock was consistently beating the defender on the right hand side and getting in to the D with ease, firing in crosses at all angles to Scott Hempsall-Jones and Josh Robinson.

On any other day Rochdale would have gone in at half time five or six goals up, but both an inspired goalkeeper and central defender for Preston kept things all level at the break.

Rochdale's patience was rewarded early in the second half when Hempsall-Jones found himself clear in the D and this time dummied the keeper in to an early dive and then gracefully chipped over him in to the back of the net.

A routine straight from the training ground doubled Rochdale's lead with Josh Robinson benefitting with a well drilled back post tap in.

Preston continued to push as nothing but a win would be good enough for their title challenge, but Rochdale knew the hard work had been done and re-arranged tactically to stem the flow.

With under 10 minutes to go Hempsall-Jones again broke clear in the D and with a reverse shot in to the bottom corner put the game beyond Preston's reach.

Captain Karl Wynn said: “We have known for a while that this game was crucial, and all the team stepped up to plate.

"Fred Stocks performance on the right was a typical example, he never gave up and continued to fire in crosses all game, knowing that we only needed one to come off. He thoroughly deserved the Quat-Chem man-of-the-match.

"Now with only four games left, the division title is in our hands.”