Hockey: Prescot Ladies 1 - 6 Rochdale Ladies

Player of the match was Jenny Banks

Rochdale needed a win to keep their promotion hopes alive as they faced Prescot away.

It took Rochdale a good ten minutes to settle into the game and Prescot took advantage of this by scoring the first goal of the game.

This gave Rochdale the kick start they needed and they quickly replied with an excellent taken short corner by Jenny Banks.

Tensions were rising and Rochdale found themselves getting frustrated, but with encouragement from their supporters and some stern words the umpires they knuckled down, and it wasn’t long until Banks scored her second with some excellent work from Gemma Hodcroft and Paula McDonald in the midfield.

The defence welcomed back Kate Brammer who along with Nikki Mongan, Gill Owen, Hannah Palmer and Sam Partington remained solid as usual.

The motivational team talk from captain Becky Knowles at half time saw Rochdale go from strength to strength in the second half.

There was some excellent passing at the start of the second half from Brammer in defence, to Dionne Collinson on left wing, to Hodcroft, who found Banks at top D and with the Prescot keeper running out, Banks skilfully passed the ball to Roisin Pickering who slotted it home. 3-1.

Rochdale's fourth goal came from a cleverly worked short corner; Banks passed to McDonald who was waiting on the back post to put the ball away. This gave Rochdale more and more confidence and they continued to attack the Prescot goal.

When a free hit was awarded to Rochdale just outside the D, Pickering took the ball without hesitation and with some intricate stick skills gave Rochdale goal number five.

With Prescot now tiring Mongan took a free hit from the back which reached the unmarked Katie Burrell who tapped the ball onto the on rushing Banks. Banks took on the Prescot defence like a hot knife through butter to score her hat-trick.

The game ended 6-1 to Rochdale.

Captain Knowles said: “I was very proud of the team today. What a fantastic win, same again next week ladies.”

Player of the match was Jenny Banks.