Men's Hockey: Rochdale 4 - 2 Bolton

Rochdale Men’s Hockey Firsts

Rochdale Men beat Bolton Men in their opening game of the league campaign on Saturday at Oulder Hill.

After a tentative start, Bolton broke the deadlock when a pass out of defence was intercepted by the Bolton forward and after an initial save by Decay the shot was illegally blocked on the line by Danny Ramsbottom, which resulted in a penalty flick and ultimately 1-0 to Bolton.

Constant pressure from Rochdale captain Michael Waddicor and Jamie Shepherd down the right began to open gaps up in the Bolton defence. This led to several short corners, with the Bolton keeper saving well to keep them in front.

Eventually the keeper made a mistake, failing to clear a David Gowers shot, with Hempsall-Jones being first to react to put in the rebound and level the score.

Keeping the pressure up, Rochdale took the lead when Michael Waddicor collected the ball just inside the opposition half, turned the midfield and ran through the Bolton defence to convert a tight-angled solo goal.

Rochdale kept the momentum going early in the second half and scored again with Shepherd converting a wide shot by Mark Eden.

Rochdale had control of the game with Bolton fighting for scraps, but a defensive error gave Bolton some hope, as they pulled a goal back to make it 3-2.

Rochdale regained their two goal cushion when Barry Gumbley deflected the ball into the net from a cross that caught the Bolton keeper off guard.

Captain Michael Waddicor said: "It was a great team effort against a Bolton team that sat 11 men behind the ball to park a bus across their defence. This made it hard to breakdown, but eventually all the possession and hard work paid off.”

The man-of-the-match award went to Stuart Dearden.