Meanock inspires seconds to Kendal victory
ROCHDALE Mens 2s entertained last year’s Division 4 North League winner Kendal Mens 2s on a wet afternoon for what proved to be a scintillating encounter between the two sides.
Both teams had the luxury of coming into the fixture earning victories during last weekend’s league kick starter, with Rochdale particularly looking to avoid any early season upset against the lake district side if they were to push for promotion this season.
With captain Adam Massey sitting out the game due to injury and host of players called up for the first team, Rochdale 2s had to utilised the remaining squad of 15 to its full extent to ensure victory at Oulder Hill. With Manny Ahmed stepping in as captain, Scott HempsallJones returning from a two-week absence and Mohammed Shakir making his debut, it was relatively a strong line up for the home team.
The first chance came when Andy Meanock and Sham Ahmed played in
Dean Close out wide, but his cross eluded the forward line for a 16-yard hit.
A quick break down the left channel saw Hempsall-Jones sweep a first-time pass directly into the path of Brauns who passed the defender and rifled an unstoppable shot close range for Rochdale to go 1-0 up.
Reverting to a compacted half press, Rochdale looked to break on the counter.
An exquisite through ball saw Hempsall-Jones one on one with the goal keeper, but his attempted flick was easily palmed away, squandering a golden opportunity to extend the lead.
As Kendal were offering little going forward, the momentum was with Rochdale and it wasn’t long before HempsallJones redeemed himself for the earlier miss. After some good work between match captain Manny Ahmed and Sham Ahmed, the latter found Close, whose cross found the talented forward on the base line, his drive inside the ‘D’ skipping through three defenders and the goalkeeper resulted in a second Rochdale goal.
With Meanock pulling the strings, Rochdale’s dominace continued after the break. A slip to Brauns, who swept a pass to the back post was almost put away by Hempsall-Jones, but a point blank save from the young keeper was to deny the forward.
But it wasn’t long before Rochdale extended the lead in mesmerizing counter attacking fashion. After a spell defending, Meanock and captain Manny Ahmed combining with three one twos to beat each opposition player through the middle and Meanock finishing the move with a top ‘D’ strike into the net.
The goal stirred Kendal, who started to take risks going forward by overloading their front line.
Meanock found himself hurdling the ball over two attempted tackles in the middle-delivered a through ball to Brauns with still had a lot of work to do, he waltzed his way through the defence on the left channel.
His lifted cross shot at the end of the move was picked out with a cover drive swing by Kane Morgan to register his first goal of the season.
Kendal still didn’t lie down even after the goal, showing why they were promoted from the fourth division, they still pressed ahead admirably for opportunities.
The young side from the Lake District finally broke the Rochdale resistance when they played the ball all the way to the base line, the young right winger squeezed past the entire defence to score their first goal.
A second goal manage to come their way during a short corner in the later stages to make it 4-2 with sheer luck, a miss hit trickled all the way from the top ‘D’ into the net.
Rochdale, finding their lead cut down to two brought on more changes to finish the game more stronger whilst also noting were very unfortunate to not score more goals in the last stage, thus ending the game 4-2.