Hockey: Rochdale Men’s Firsts 3 - 2 Bury Men's Firsts

Michael Waddicor, Rochdale Men’s Hockey Firsts

Rochdale Men’s Firsts got back to winning ways with a win against local rivals Bury Men's Firsts on Saturday.

The first half was a bit of a non-event with both teams cancelling each other out and the half ending 0-0.

In the second half Rochdale upped the tempo and began to make inroads into the Bury 25.

Good movement from Danny Bowe and Rob Lees down the right began to cause problems for Bury as the Rochdale defence of Andrew Borritt, Jonathan Herreran, Bowe and Danny Rambsbottom began to control the game.

Mark Eden opened the scoring with great movement in behind the Bury defence getting onto a great ball before rounding the keeper and slotting the it home past the sliding defender.

Bury soon equalised as Rochdale were caught napping conceding a sloppy goal that was all of their own making.

However, the Rochdale midfield partnership of Michael Waddicor and James Shepherd were not finished and really began to drive Rochdale forward with Eden dropping in a holding midfield role.

The pressure proved too much for Bury, with Rochdale striker Dave Gowers scoring two quick fire goals to put them out of sight.

Bury did score with the last touch of the game from a short corner, but it was too little too late.

The Oulder Hill Leisure Complex man-of-the-match went to captain Michael Waddicor who commented: "It was a slow game to get going, but we controlled the game in the second and deserved the win."