Hockey: Rochdale Men’s Firsts 2 - 4 Carlisle Men's Firsts

Danny Ramsbottom, Rochdale Men’s Hockey Firsts

Rochdale were beaten at home against Carlisle on Sunday.

The game started well for Rochdale, who controlled most of the first half but never really look like actually scoring.

Any threat from the Carlisle forwards was snubbed out by the Rochdale back four of Danny Bowe, Danny Ramsbottom, Mark Eden and Mark Vynne leaving the score at 0-0 at half time

Rochdale came out of the blocks hard in the second half, but still struggled to find a way though.

Penetrating runs coming from the energetic midfield pair of Michael Waddicor and James Shepherd did start to pay dividends.

Eventually an Eden short corner strike came back off the keeper, with Eden reacting the quickest to lift the ball back over the stranded keeper and into the Carlisle goal.

This spurred on Carlisle and they quickly struck back with two quick goals from short corners.

As the Rochdale team tired they were driven back into their own half, leaving Dave Gowers an isolated figure up front.

Carlisle scored again  and Rochdale were really on the back foot with Waddicor and Shepherd being over run in midfield despite their battling determination.

Eden, diving for a reverse stick tackle, rolled his ankle and collided with the Carlisle attacker, and tore his ankle ligaments and also sent off for his troubles.

This ended the match as a contest and also Eden's season.

Rochdale fought on bravely with 10 men and a captain’s goal from Waddicor gave them some hope, before Carlisle struck a finishing blow to make it 4-2.

Michael Waddicor said: "With Rochdale missing so many experienced players, it was always going to be a difficult game and in the end we did not have enough to win."

The Oulder Hill Leisure Complex man-of-the-match went to Danny Ramsbottom.