Hockey - Lancashire Cup: Rochdale Firsts 7 - 2 Ormskirk

Kieran King gave Rochdale the lead

Rochdale came out on top aganist an Ormskirk side they have not played for a number of years.

Both teams started extremely quickly with hard tackles flying in, and both teams missing early chances. The pace was frantic and there was no way it could last the full much, and things eventually settled down, but not before Ormskirk took an early 2-0 lead.

Rochdale began to take more control of the game once the pace had settled and managed to pull a goal back before half time when Keiran King managed to spin the defence and play a perfect cross goal pass to find the on rushing Michael Waddicor for a simple tap in.

With one minute to half time, the Ormskirk keeper and an outfield player were both carded, as was Rochdale forward Scott Hempsall-Jones after an altercation in the D.

The second half saw Rochdale take advantage of the extra man and score through a Waddicor reverse flick and a King penalty corner strike to take the lead.

With both teams back up to full strength, the play was from end-to-end, but Rochdale didn’t look likely to concede again with James Decay in goal and Jonathan Herreran leading the defence.

Rochdale began to dominant with all the possession in attack, and goals soon followed from James Shepherd and David Gowers.

Sean Carney also got his name on the score card when the ball bounced nicely for him after a tackle and he slotted the ball passed the on coming keeper.

It was, however, to be Michael Waddicor’s day as he rounded off a great result for Rochdale by running through several bad challenges to put the ball pass the rushing keeper and secure a hat-trick, and the man-of-the-match award.

Rochdale Captain Michael Waddicor said: "It was a great result. Ormskirk flew in with rash challenges but the lads kept their cool and concentrated on the win. 

“Personally, I am happy of course with the hat-trick and man-of-the-match, but the main thing is we are through to the semi-finals against Mossley Hill in January.”