Hockey: Rochdale Men’s Seconds 2 - 3 Leyland and Chorley Men’s Seconds

Man of the match Graham Broadley - Rochdale Men’s Seconds v Leyland and Chorley Men’s Seconds

Despite Rochdale controlling the game, Leyland and Chorley prevailed in a close contest that started 30-minutes late due to Leyland and Chorley being stuck in traffic.

Rochdale were quicker to the ball in the first half and playing by far the better hockey, despite fielding a line up that due to injuries meant Imran Ansari was missing from the midfield and fresh faces were playing together for the first time in the back four.

As the half wore on, Rochdale’s new defensive line up grew in confidence and on more than one occasion played the ball around the four of them, quickly turning defence in to attack.

Bjorne Brauns capitalised on this, dropping deep to receive the ball from James Whittaker at left back, Brauns made several penetrating runs from within his own half, deep in to Leyland territory. Although he didn’t score, it was these runs, and those from Andy Meanock on the other flank, that led to Rochdale scoring through Josh Robinson. Robinson had received the driven ball into the D, rounded the keeper and slotted home.

Rochdale striker Barry Gumbley was working hard and was a thorn in the Leyland defence all half. After several shots that had gone wide from tight angles, Gumbley finally found himself in space at the top of the D and from that position there was only one place the ball was going to end up.

Just before the break Leyland pulled a goal back, but it was Rochdale who went in at half time 2-1 up.

The second half continued in much the same, with Rochdale in control of the play. However, as the clock ticked on the Rochdale midfield started to miss the experience of Ansari. Meanock was consistently in acres of space but the balls just weren’t getting through and with ten minutes left the inevitable happened and Leyland equalised.

Rochdale were hanging on and within minutes to play Leyland took the lead. A reverse stick drive from the top of the D found the bottom corner and a valuable three points were lost for Rochdale as a lack of time meant there was no way back.

Rochdale remain fourth in the division, but with four teams all on 12 points from eight games, dropped points next week could mean the difference between fourth or eighth.

Saturday sees Rochdale take on third place Preston Fourths, so a win there would put real pressure on Preston and help to consolidate Rochdale in the top half of the table.

Captain Karl Wynn: “It’s disappointing to lose the way we did. We have to take our chances when they come in this division. This game should have been all over by half time we had enough opportunities to put it to bed.

"On a positive note, I thought the new guys in the defensive line up, James Whittaker, Dave Edwards and Graham Broadley played well, they were calm when under pressure, never panicking and Graham Broadley is deserving of the Quat-Chem man-of-the-match award.”