Ladies capture crown in style

Leisure Complex to witness what was going to be an historic day.

Rochdale knew what they had to do, they had been through the dress rehearsal last week and were not going to fall at the last hurdle.

Their nerves settled quickly and allowed them to play their natural game and within minutes they had taken the lead with an expert run by Roisin Pickering who picked out Jenny Banks in the D and she calmly slotted the ball home.

This was followed quickly by another well worked move by Becky Knowles to Paula McDonald who smashed her shot in to the net, 2-0 to Rochdale with barely five minutes on the clock.

Manchester University didn’t give up but every attack they tried fell short as soon as it came up against Rochdale’s defence line, who stood strong and were aiming to keep yet another clean sheet to add to their great record of not conceding a single goal at home all season.

As the clocked ticked down towards half time Rochdale were proving worthy of their champion status and two more goals came from Pickering and one each for Ashleigh Hoyle and Knowles and 4 more for Banks. At half time it was 10-0 and without divine intervention it was looking good for the ladies.

The second half started with more of the same and within minutes Banks was on the scoresheet again. With the midfield duo of Gemma Hodcroft and McDonald in the form they were and producing these kind of quality passes to the Rochdale strikers, it was almost impossible not to score. Manchester University were now tiring and Rochdale took advantage of this.

Captain Kie Leech began her mazey runs towards the D producing pin point balls into the area and Kate Brammer got in on the act as well.

Several short corners were awarded to Rochdale but Manchester’s stand in keeper was showing her skills and she was doing her best to keep the score down. Pickering finally got her hat-trick after a great pass from Dionne Collinson set her free into the D where she expertly tucked the ball under the keeper.

After this Banks scored another five goals to add to her tally for the day. Manchester University must be applauded for fighting right until the end showing great courage but for them the final whistle eventually came and the score ended 17-0.

The title was Rochdale’s!! Player of the match was awarded to Jenny Banks for her 11 goals on the day.