Hockey: Southport Men’s Seconds 3 - 3 Rochdale Men’s Seconds

Rochdale Men’s Hockey Seconds

Rochdale Men’s Hockey Seconds came away from Southport with a well earned draw, but aggrieved that refereeing decsions cost them a win.

Rochdale struggled in the first 10 minutes but countered pressing high and hard, continually getting in and around the D.

Rochdale opened the scoring from a short corner. The ball was injected by Dean Close to Graham Broadley who passed to Bjorne Brauns. His shot hit the keeper and Dean Close was quick to the rebound to dink it over the incoming stick and into the back of the net.

A momentary lack in of Rochdale concentration allowed the Southport players to break into the D to get a goal back.

Rochdale started the second half with the same energy that they finished the first half and as a result earned more short corners. This continued pressure resulted in another goal for Rochdale scored by Graham Broadley

Southport started to apply a lot of pressure to the Rochdale defence and with a few mistakes in the D started giving away short corners

Southport scored from one of those short corners but the goal was disallowed because the initial shot was above the height of the backboard.

However, a few minutes later Southport earned another short corner and this time the resulting goal stood despite the initial shot being above the height of the backboard.

Rochdale pressed and with a well worked passing routine Noam Willis received the ball at the top of the D and struck a thundering shot into the bottom corner to give Rochdale the lead.

Southport responded and a the short corner was initially cleared by Rochdale but quickly returned in to the D and hit a Rochdale players leg. The umpire awarded a penalty flick for obstructing a goal scoring opportunity -disputed by Rochdale - and Southport scored from the flick to draw level.

Man-of-the-match went to Dave Marlow for his "commanding performance in defence".