Hockey: Salford University Ladies 4 - 2 Rochdale Ladies

Rochdale Ladies hopes of victory at Salford University were dashed on Saturday despite battling hard.

With keeper Sam Partington, centre midfield Paula MacDonald and centre defender Nicky Mongan away enjoying half term, Rochdale welcomed back Jennie Ransome and junior Sarah Ransome on to the pitch.

The game started quickly with Salford pressing high up the pitch but it took until midway through first half before they opened the scoring. 

Despite Kie Leech tracking the ball and a valiant effort from Knowles and Hodcroft in the middle, the Salford forward passed it through the D where it was met by a Salford stick.

Salford’s second goal followed a short corner; despite the efforts of Owen, Collinson, Leech and Moon, the ball slipped through into the right-hand corner.

Rochdale’s breakthrough came from a misplaced pass coming out of Salford’s defence. Roisin Pickering picked up the ball and was afforded the time and space to pass into the D. Katie Burrell tapped it to Ransome who was waiting at the back post. Ransome swept the ball into right hand corner of the net, having avoided the lacklustre efforts of the Salford defence.

The intensity in the second half remained high, with both teams sensing that an increase in performance could yield a positive result..

It was Salford who made it pay scoring thier third early on.

Rochdale’s second goal came after they were awarded a short corner, Knowles injected the ball into top D to Pickering who past to the left. Hodcroft connected with the ball and slotted it home.

Salfords fourth, and final goal of the game, came late on in the game.

With a couple of minutes left to try and salvage the game Rochdale became a little frantic and despite securing a couple of short corners they were unable to make them count. 

Captain Kie: “It was a great, well battled game again. The team worked really hard together right until the end despite a player shortage.

"A big thank you to Sue, junior Sarah and Jennie for stepping up when needed. Sue playing in goal, Jennie for scoring her first Rochdale goal and Sarah getting player-of-the-match.

"Well played ladies.”