Rochdale move up to fourth after Southport cruise
ON a sunny, calm day at Moorgate Avenue Rochdale had to ring the changes with Shaun Needham, Harry Hill and Chris Hodgkinson all missing in came Andy Foster and Andy Redfern to bolster the pack with Jed Woolfenden and Jake Smith on the bench.
Southport fielded former Sale and Wigan centre Chris Mayor in a full strength side.
Rochdale started smartly with captain Dom Serridge making a good break from midfield but the ball went down for a scrum to Southport. The Dale pack forced the visitors into conceding a penalty on their own 22 but the attempt went just wide.
Dale continued to press with Andy Redfern and Beltus Nonleh both making good yards. A second penalty for a high tackle saw Ollie Coldman slot the kick from 30 yards to make it 3-0 with 10 minutes gone
Another good take at the kick off saw Tom Helliwell make a break, backed up by Steve Foster and Nonleh, but the final pass went forward.
Southport showed a bit of fight going forward but poor passing and a tenacious Dale defence kept them stuck in the midfield.
If the home side had taken more clean ball at the line out the score would have advanced more quickly, but despite getting a series of penalties it was not until the 25th minute that a fine passing move involving James Duffy, Redfern and Serridge saw Coldman take a nice inside pass and crash over for a fine converted try, 10-0.
The game was sliding away from Southport. They had several good attacks but only came near to scoring once, stubborn defence on the five metre line by the Dale pack seeing the move end in a penalty to the home side and the ball cleared.