First team shake off rustiness in friendly

SATURDAY saw Rochdale Men’s first team return to action with a friendly against Bowdon after their scheduled league match was called off by the opposition.

In the opening minutes it looked like Rochdale were going to run riot as they started the brighter, pinning the home side deep in their own half.

A few strong opening shots flashed across goal and one rattled the post but was cleared by some quick defending.

Rochdale did think they had opened the scoring as Barry Gumbley, returning from a bad injury, rounded several defenders and hammered it in the bottom corner from the top of circle.

However, the umpires deemed the ball was struck just outside the scoring area and awarded a 16 to the defence.

Surviving these early scares gave the young Bowdon side a bit more confidence and they started to get their shape and game plan into operation. The play was still predominantly with Rochdale but Bowdon forced a few penalty corners and some decent efforts from their reverse sides, all well handled by the visiting back three.

The opening goal would fall for Bowdon, however, as a failed interception allowed one of their midfielders to control the ball on the halfway line and drive at the defence. He had speed and enthusiasm, drove to the 23m line and hammered it across circle, finding one of their experienced forwards who slid in and guided it into the backboard.

Bowdon had the lead, albeit against the run of play but they had showed some promise. A little stung and realising they had to go up a gear, Rochdale continued to pepper the goal and control most of the possession. A goal would prove elusive this half, however, as the home side went in a goal up, with one of their players heard to remark how have Rochdale not scored.

Several times the Bowdon team were lucky to clear shots from Gumbley, Rob Lees, Michael Waddicor, Dave Gowers and Ellis Barnes in the early exchanges of the second half.

However after a well worked move that started with a run from Gowers on the left, a slip right to Ric Borritt who beat a man and laid the ball off for a first time shot from

Peter Ransome. The Bowdon keeper saved the initial shot, but it was captain Waddicor who brought Rochdale level, by reacting first by diving in to knock the ball over the line.

It was to be a little short lived, as Rochdale’s back line got caught trying some new defensive tactics which allowed the Bowdon forward unmarked at the back post to tap in an easy goal for Bowdon’s second.

Mercifully, Rochdale’s forwards got them off the hook pretty quickly with a great response. Some brilliant passing play between Borritt and the experienced partnership off Gowers and Gumbley found Gowers putting in an excellent first time shot played to him by Gumbley to level the score again.

It was still Rochdale who looked the most likely to win, but time was starting to run out. Lees thought he had found a way through as he hammered a rebounding ball in from the top of the circle but it was ruled out for danger, and Gowers had chipped the ball over the keeper only for it to hit the crossbar. However with about two minutes to go Lee’s finally got the winner with a brilliant reverse stick strike into the top corner to secure a 3-2 victory for Rochdale.

Captain Michael Waddicor said: “We were obviously rusty at times and we let ourselves down with moments of poor passing and decision making. Bowdon played a mixture of experience and talented youth prospects, and in the end it was a great game for spectators with the end to end play.”

The Oulderhill Leisure Complex man of the match went to Captain Michael Waddicor.