Firsts hold out for narrow win
ROCHDALE mens’ first team welcomed City of Manchester Mens 2s to Oulder Hill on Saturday and picked up a wellearned 2-1 victory.
With several players back and a full squad available it was a rare opportunity to really push the team’s new style of play.
Rochdale started well enough but could not make their superiority in terms of possession count on the scoresheet.
This allowed City of Manchester to have some chances of their own, and, boasting a mix of experience and youth they were pushing the Rochdale defence to their limits.
But, just as they’d done the week before, they stood firm helped by the returning Andrew Borritt who led the line well.
The home side stuck to their task and opened the scoring through Sean Carney, making it three goals in three games for him.
A second goal was not far behind with Mark Eden and Michael Waddicor combining from a short corner to set up Barry Gumbley to lift the ball into the top right hand corner to make it 2-0 at the break.
The second half saw Rochdale suffer from a lack of fitness. This was compounded by the every energetic James Shepherd being sent off, reducing Rochdale to 10 men for 10 minutes. They were also suffering from uncharacteristically poor play in the final third and could not drive home their advantage.
As a result, Manchester grew in confidence and managed to pull a goal back from a short corner, leaving Rochdale holding on in the final moments of the match, with the last play of the game a short corner to defend.
The game was to finish 2-1 to Rochdale.
Rochdale coach Aasim Chaudhry said: “What a great performance it was from the Rochdale midfield praise to Borritt, Jonathan Herreran and Danny Bowe for their heroic performance in defence.”