Boundary Park champions of Sunday League Second Division

Date published: 15/04/2009

Boundary Park were crowned champions of the Rochdale Sunday League second division at the weekend.

The side brought a close to their league fixtures on Easter Sunday with victory over Woolworths to ensure that they went through the entire season unbeaten.

Despite a fine performance from Woolworths goalkeeper Ryan Higginbottom, a first half strike from Rick Sopel and a simple header for substitute Jordan Scholes ensured victory, with the strong Boundary Park backline keeping another clean sheet.

Woolworths enjoyed the excellent playing surface at Hopwood Hall early on and defended well against a Boundary Park team that sought an early goal to settle their nerves.

A couple of chances for Serhyj and Rick Sopel came the way of Boundary Park but the game was half an hour old before they broke the deadlock. A quick break out from defence saw Kieran Mitton send a penetrating through ball that striker Sopel ran onto and outpaced his marker to fire home.

Boundary Park made a more settled start to the second half and Woolworths keeper Higginbottom did well to keep the score down with some top saves.

Mike Sopel latched on to a swift four man passing move and struck a fierce shot that was on its way to the top corner before Higginbottom made a save of top quality.

A change of formation was made with Jordan Scholes, who had been rested from the starting line-up due to injury, coming on for Dean Ashton and Serhyj moving to right midfield in the hope of increasing Boundary Park’s forward power and grab the important second goal.

Within a minute the substitution had worked as Scholes was on the end of a pin point cross for a simple header to seal the game.

More excellent saves from Higginbottom denied Boundary Park a third but they were able to see out the rest of the game comfortably.