Hockey: Didsbury Northern Fifths 3 - 1 Rochdale Men’s Seconds

Rochdale Men’s Seconds were away at Didsbury Northern Fifths on Saturday 23 February. Rochdale started buoyed up by the welcome presence of expert coach Aasim Choudry.

The game started fairly even but as time wore on Didsbury's packed midfield were creating numerous penalty corners.

Didsbury's attack looked lethal from set pieces and only some inspired defending from Karl Wynn, Dave Marlow and man of the match Brian Robinson was keeping them out.

Eventually though the inevitable happened and a penalty corner was converted to put Didsbury one up.

Changing tactics by sacrificing a forward to man mark Didsbury's play maker saw Rochdale come back into the game a little, with some good play.

A piece of fortune came Rochdale's way, as clever play from Sean Carney got a foot in the Didsbury D.

Sensibly appealing for a short corner, as he was wide of goal and outnumbered two on five, the Didsbury umpire played advantage.

Carney was first to react and unleashed the ball goalward where Dean Close calmly deflect it past the keeper to equalise for Rochdale.

With the game back on, Rochdale were looking like they might get something out of it when disaster struck.

After another fine save from Robinson a Didsbury forward picked the ball up on the baseline.

Hitting the ball back towards the P spot, the ball deflected of Dave Marlow's stick and into the back of the net.

Coming in at half time 2-1 down Rochdale were not out of it.

Didsbury set their stall out to defend their lead and Rochdale came at them, creating a few half chances.

Unfortunately, Didsbury managed to win another penalty corner on the break which after a fairly lengthy goal mouth scramble they managed to coolly slot the ball over the line for a two-goal advantage.

Frustrations grew a little and Rochdale tried to change it to create something, but it was not to be Rochdale’s day.

Hand on heart though, it was not enough from the front line to make the difference, though Rochdale did keep trying till the end.

All in all, it wasn't a bad performance from Rochdale, it's just Didsbury were better on the day.

Vice-Captain Graham Broadley said: "We will learn from this and try to come back stronger next week. Nobody has won every game this season and our standard of hockey has massively improved.

“Promotion is now out of our hands, all we can do is concentrate on winning our games and see how the dice fall at the end of the season. We will continue to learn, develop and improve with every game."

The Flying Horse Man of the Match was Brian Robinson.