Weekend double sees firsts on top
ROCHDALE’S first team enjoyed a weekend winning double with victories against Bolton and Kendal.
On Saturday against Bolton, Rochdale started the game with a quick tempo, closing down every attack early on, a tactic which paid off just four minutes in when captain Michael Waddicor stole the ball from the Bolton midfield and ran through the centre of the pitch to enter the D.
Waddicor was one on one with the Bolton keeper and saw him rushing out, only to calmly lift the ball over him into the corner of the net to make it 1-0.
Dave Gowers soon followed Waddicor onto the score sheet from a short corner pass from Mark Eden.
The ball was deflected but the quick reactions of Gowers saw him dive to the floor and reverse the ball over the goal line.
James Shepherd added to the scoreline soon after with a fantastic solo effort, which saw him beat three players before spinning and putting the ball past the keeper with a reverse stick shot.
It looked as though it was going to be an easy afternoon for Rochdale, but that wasn’t to be.
As Rochdale began to relax, they allowed Bolton to press further up the pitch.
This evidently led to mistakes and Bolton capitalised, scoring two unanswered goals to send the teams in at half time with just a goal separating them.
The early part of the second saw Rochdale fail to step things up, and an uncharacteristic mistake from defender Eden led to Bolton pinching the ball off him and making it 3-3.
Eden was adamant that he was going to make amends, and did so a few mins later when he received the ball on the edge of the D, took the Bolton defender on and smashed a strike past the keeper, making it 4-3.
Rochdale then looked to sit back and play a counter attacking game, catching Bolton out four times with well worked goals.
There was a second for Gowers with a reverse stick strike, while Rob Lees made the score sheet as he touch the ball over the line from a Barry Gumbley shot that was already going in.
Waddicor got his second for the day after Sean Carney received the ball in the D and had plenty of time to shoot himself, but was unselfish when he saw Waddicor in a better position to put the ball over the line.
Shepherd then got his second of the match as Carney passed to Waddicor in the D, who held the ball up waited for Shepherd to get in the right position to finish with another reverse shot and make it 8-3.
In the final minutes of the game Gumbley made possibly the pass of the season as he picked the ball up on the far left of the pitch, took a player on and managed to make a full cross field struck pass in to the path of the sprinting Shepherd.
Shepherd then found Waddicor in the D but the Bolton keeper pulled off a great save to prevent the goal and deny Waddicor his hat-trick.
Rochdale Captain Michael Waddicor said “Today we made this game hard ourselves. Even though the score line doesn’t makes it look that way, they had more of the possession than us but the main thing is the three points, and the lads dug deep yet again to win them.”
The Oulderhill Leisure Centre man of the match went to Michael Waddicor.
The following day the squad headed for the Lake District to face Kendal and returned home with the points after a 6-2 win.
They started the game at a high tempo which Kendal could not deal with. This showed as they failed to deal with the skill of Gumbley and the runs made by Shepherd, Lees and Waddicor.
Within 20 minutes Rochdale were up 4-0, the goals coming from a Gumbley strike straight through the keeper at a short corner, Dave Gowers with a thunderous shot in the bottom corner from another short corner, and Lees converting a saved attempt from a Waddicor shot. But the best goal of the first half came from the returning vice captain Stuart Dearden after a lengthy spell missing with injury.
Dearden had stolen the ball from the Kendal midfield, passed it out wide for Shepherd to run the ball deep in to the opposition defence, before squaring a pass back to Dearden to convert in style as he dived to reach the ball slapping it past the Kendal keeper.
In the second half Rochdale legs began to tire, and the toll of two games in two days began to take place.
Kendal got a goal back to make it 4-1 from a Rochdale error which saw them fail to clear the ball into safety. However, Lees got his second goal of the game and restored the four-goal advantage shortly after with a fine solo effort.
He received the ball just outside of the Kendal D and managed to force his way through the defence to give himself a shooting opportunity, and took it with his strike flying into the net.
Kendal never gave up and did managed to get a second, as they somehow managed to squeeze the ball past James Deacy’s inside post.
Deacy and the Rochdale defence of Danny Ramsbottom, Mark Eden, Andrew Borritt, Tim Liptrot and Mark Vynne were pretty much solid throughout the game.
The only exception was a miscommunication between Vynne and Eden which ended up which Eden being sent off for five minutes for a strong tackle on the Kendal forward.
Rochdale winger Lees ended the game with his third goal and Rochdale’s sixth, as he turned a Gumbley shot over the line for the second game in a row.
Captain Waddicor said: “This was the second game in two days, and by the end of the game there were some tired legs, but the lads dug deep yet again to earn another three points and put us back at the top.
“It was great to finally have Stuart Dearden back after so long away. He is always a rock in the midfield and we have missed him. But today the Oulderhill Leisure Centre man of the match goes to Rob Lees for his hat-trick performance”