Hockey: Rochdale Men's 2nds 6 - 0 Leigh Men's 1sts

Saturday 15 October saw Rochdale taking on Leigh at Oulder Hill Leisure Centre. It was a different feeling pre-game, with Rochdale expected to win comfortably against a side bottom of the league on minus 16 goals after three matches. Nothing could be taken for granted though and both the captain and coach were insistent on a performance from all the squad.

It was a nervy start for the home team and the initial plan of a half court press was quickly dropped as Leigh sat deep after their first 16 and refused to come further up the pitch. Rochdale responded by pressing higher up the pitch. The away teams’ options were limited, but they showed good initial spirit and tried to make a game of it. They attempted to play aerial passes to their forward or move people around to create a passing lane for a hit to the front line. Fortunately, the Rochdale defence were switched on to the early threat. Through marking the forwards tightly and slightly to the side, they were able to make the interceptions to deny Leigh any early opportunities.

The home side had most of the early possession and nearly the whole game was played in Leigh’s half. However, it took a while for Rochdale’s skills to come through, either because of the weight of expectation or due to not spending enough time keeping the basic skills fresh on the training ground as passes went astray and were not controlled in promising areas. With improved communication though, the team started to remember to transfer the ball from wing to wing, which started to open gaps, as the defence was slow to transition to face the new threat.

​This led to the opening goal, after about ten minutes, as some clever play and a penetrating run behind the defensive line by Stuart Dearden found him in space around the penalty spot for a clever push finish. It was a good team goal and an important one to settle the home team down. To their credit, Leigh made some good attempts to get back into the game as they started to get a few aerial balls to the forwards, resulting in a couple of good tackles being made by Rochdale’s back line. Without the back up from Leigh’s midfield though, they were unable to trouble Rochdale’s goal keeper in the first half.

​The second goal started to feel like it was coming, as Rochdale started to find their structure and play as a unit. A spirit well demonstrated in this match by man of the match Dean Close, who combined well with his team mates and managed to find Rochdale’s second with a thumping slap hit from the back post side of the penalty spot. It was a good position to be in for Rochdale but there was still a long way to go and this Leigh side may have been a man down, but they were no mugs and did have a good individual skill set when they got the ball.

The home team were constantly talking to each other and kept the marking tight to deny their opponents any real possession. A third goal was added before half time by captain Adam Massey, who slotted a nice push finish into the corner through a crowd of bodies.

Rochdale may have been 3-0 up at half time, but the team in orange were disappointed with themselves as they felt they were not playing well and the score line should be higher. Rochdale went into the second half wanting to be more penetrating and score more goals.

​The first ten minutes were good with a goal disallowed for a foul in the build up and several penalty corners being won. One of these led to a goal from Bjorn Brauns, after Manni Ahmed slipped him in. He went for a push/flick finish which was the right call. It was not up to his normal standard of finishing, but still found a way in for Rochdale’s fourth.

Sadly, the next 15 minutes were not good for Rochdale, as Leigh started to get under their skin. They started getting involved in arguments and taking the focus off just playing their own game, as Leigh tried to limit the goal deficit anyway they could.

Rochdale started to get their minds back on track, winning more penalty corners against a tightly packed defence. A fifth goal came from one of these as a square pass found Massey inside the circle. It looked like the chance would come to nothing, but as it began to look like he had taken too long, he produced a quick flick which went into the top corner off the post for his second of the day.

A sixth goal would be added not long after by Close to seal a much-needed win for Rochdale.

​Captain Adam Massey said: “It was the result that was expected, but we are capable of playing better hockey than we showed today. It’s important to remind ourselves the last time we played against a ten man defence, we only needed one goal and we couldn’t get one goal in 30 minutes. Today we managed three in each half and showed we have learned how to break a packed defence down better than we could last season.

"We still need to keep improving though and the season has barely begun. Next Saturday (22 October) is a rearranged home game against city of Manchester third team, any support welcome.”

Dean Close was named man of the match.