Youngsters light
THE result was mere icing on the cake on a night to remember for Rochdale as they kicked off their Checkatrade Trophy campaign in entertaining style.
A derby victory against arch rivals Bury, Zach Clough scoring on his debut, teenager Matty Gillam firing what turned out to be the winner, Dan Adshead shining again on the day he signed his first professional contract, a debut for youth teamer Florent Hoti – the postives came thick and fast.
But trumping them all was the unveiling of yet another young gem from the Rochdale production line.
At 15 years of age, Luke Matheson makes Gillam – four years his senior – look like a veteran campaigner!
But there was no question as to his quality, evident from the minute he came on as an early replacement for the unfortunate Connor Randall.
Adshead, Aaron Morley and Gillam all started in a youthful Dale line-up which saw Clough start up front and Randall make his home debut. Hoti and Matheson were joined on the bench by fellow youth teamer Fabio Tavares.
Randall’s evening did not last long. He was caught by a heavy challenge from Shakers Gold Omotayo, suffering a nasty injury to the head. Though he was able to walk off the field, he did so gingerly and it was quickly evident he would play no further part.
That meant right-back Matheson became Rochdale’s youngest-ever player when he made his debut after just 13 minutes.
Given that upheaval, it was little surprise to see Bury have the first half chance on goal but Magnus Norman comfortably held Jay O’Shea’s shot from the edge of the area.
Any it didn’t take Dale long to hit their straps again as they grabbed the lead in the 17th minute.
Ollie Rathone linked up with Gillam, who played in Clough on the left side of the penalty. The onloan Forest frontman sent a first-time strike beyond Bury goalkeeper Matthew Hudson and into the bottom corner of the net.
And two minutes later, Dale doubled their advantage.
Matheson did exceptionally well keep to the ball in play, and after some neat link up between the young rightback, Adshead and Gillam, a pass was threaded through to the latter, who toe poked an effort into the bottom corner of the net.
On the half hour, Matheson had the main stand supporters up off their seats as he drove at goal and away from three Bury players, before feeding Jordan Williams, who went on to win a corner, with an inch perfect pass.
Before the half was out, dominant Dale saw Williams fire a low shot across goal and narrowly wide of the upright, while Clough went for goal from 20-yards, forcing Hudson into a diving save.
Bury, whose manager Ryan Lowe was serving the second of a two-game stadium ban, made two changes for the start of the second half, and one of them – Dominic Telford, saw an effort blocked on the follow up, after Callum McFadzean had a shot beaten away at the near post by Norman.
Shortly before the hour, Williams came agonisingly close to getting his name on the score-sheet, a goal that wouldn’t have been begrudged given his sheer grit and determination to create the chance in the first place.
After battling hard and taking on a number of Bury players, he saw himself in on goal but could only look on as he saw his effort creep narrowly past the upright.
In a brief spell of pressure from the Shakers, Norman denied Dominic Telford from six-yards after he’d latched onto a cross from fellow substitute