Hockey: Rochdale Men's 2nds 6 - 2 Timperley Men's 6ths

Saturday 4 March saw Rochdale at home to Timperley. In the reverse fixture at Timperley, they had come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2, so they were expecting a tough game.

Right from the off Timperley pressed high and most of the opening ten minutes was played in Rochdale’s half. Fortunately, Timperley failed to capitalise on it when they did get in behind Rochdale’s defence.

The home side were making a lot of errors with their passing too early on, resulting in a lot of turnovers early on, which added to the pressure they were under.

Two early goals (against the run of the play) greatly helped the home side to get a foothold in the game. The first was a good combination from forwards Bjorn Brauns and Stuart Dearden, with Brauns committing the goalkeeper and Dearden sweeping in to open the scoring.

A second goal was added about five minutes later. A Rochdale attack down their left was quickly transferred to the right wing, allowing captain Adam Massey to do an overlap with James Trainor, before firing in the return pass from around the penalty spot to double Rochdale’s advantage.

Timperley were not going to go down easily though and got themselves a goal back from being able to play high in the home side's half. A bit of miscommunication allowed them to get a man over on Rochdale’s left, allowing them to work it into the circle, before pulling a cross back from the baseline, which was swiftly and accurately struck into the backboard to put the score back to 2-1.

Rochdale managed to add another one from a penalty corner, which was a contender for goal of the season.

The ball was switched left from the top of the circle and then passed along the ground towards Kane Morgan, but the ball was deflected up off a defender's stick. Improvising well, Morgan deflected it first time, lobbed the goal keeper and the ball dropped safely into the empty net.

There were some objections from the Timperley players, but the ball hadn’t been raised by the attacking side and it wasn’t dangerous, so the goal stood. Timperley made a swift attack from the restart, but an alert Mike Bohanna was on hand to deflect it away.

At half time the score was 3-1 in Rochdale’s favour.

​Some good tactical points were made at halftime by coach Imran Ansari. More of an effort needed to be made to break through Timperley’s press, as when Rochdale had, they had looked dangerous.

The home side also needed to start trying to play higher in Timperley’s half and get on the front foot more.

Straight from the off it looked more like Timperley were going to force a way back into the game, but it wasn’t long before they got caught on the counter. Andy Meanock put in a brilliant tackle and then broke at pace through the middle. A few quick passes got him two-on-one with the goalkeeper and he unselfishly slipped the ball square to Adam Boodeea for Rochdale’s first of the second half.

​Rochdale were better in the second half and with Timperley largely deflated now, the home side managed to add two more. Dearden got his second from a well taken first time hit and Massey got his second from a cool-headed flick over the keeper under pressure.

With the score at 6-1 the game was pretty much over. Rochdale had a few more chances to add to the lead, but it was Timperley who would get a last consolation goal from a penalty corner. The ball was switched right from the top of the circle and struck first time into the backboard.

The final score was Rochdale 6 - 2 Timperley.

Captain Adam Massey said: “It was a tough game against a good side. Once we were able to break through their press, we did a good job of putting our chances away. We just need to take things one game at a time for our last four fixtures, starting with Bowden away next week.”

Man of the match was Josh Robinson who played brilliantly in midfield, with some great tackles and interceptions.