Big Win for the Supporters Team

Rochdale Supporters 5 – 0 Preston B Supporters

God knows how I’ve ended up with the role of team journalist, but someone has to do it (and funnily enough the team member that is a sports journalist is “too busy” to do it!) Anyway, here is my flaccid attempt at producing a match report for the opening day of the Rochdale Supporters Trust Football Club.

So, the new season started on Saturday for RSFC, and you could tell which players benefited from our pre-season trip to Mallorca – Jimmy was acting brassier than ever, Joe had a smile from ear to ear, Ry was showing off his new tattoo and Iain had a very particular spring in his step – some would say it was if he’s had a rocket shoved up his backside. Liam was left out of the match day squad due to fatigue from the week long training camp, even though he spent most of each day in bed!

The first day of the season is always very exciting. And the majority of the players were making sure they were in tip-top condition for the challenge Preston B would offer by staying in on the Friday and having an early night. JW doesn’t like to be the same as everyone else, and he was out after work in Manchester for “a few pints”.

The changing room was rocking pre-match as the players got dressed in our all yellow kit (we looked beautiful) thanks to the tunes from the day’s captain, Rhys – who also happens to be our manager, coincident? I think not! Rhys turned to his right hand man to fill the water bottles up though, which resulted in the first fine of the season. RW owes £2.

The team lined out in the gaffer’s newly incorporated formation of 3-5-2. RW filled the net, the back three consisted of JH, JW and JA. The central midfield was RL, PD and JiH with wingers of JLee and LW, leaving the two strikers of PH and KD. You could tell it was early in the season as we had three subs – MD, IM and NL.

I was half expecting a slow start from Dale, as the summer has been a very long one for quite a few of our players, and I was certain it was going to show. Anyway, I was wrong, and the first 2o minutes were dominated by Dale, and the fans could sense a goal coming – and we weren’t left hanging.

JiH burst into the box, danced past the Preston centre half, only to be tripped by the centre back – the ref blew his whistle and pointed to the spot. RL – the scorer of DAT GOAL – stepped up and although the penalty wasn’t his greatest, the keeper dived the wrong way. 1-0 Dale.

It didn’t take long for Dale to double their lead, this time a well worked moved down the left found KD at a very tight angle – instead of doing his usual trick of trying to lob the keeper and putting it over/wide, he pulled the ball back to JiH. Jim showed great strength to hold the defender off as he turned and smashed the ball into the far top corner. 2-0 Dale.

The only other real things to take note of from the first half was our Left sided centre back deciding he was going to play the CAM role for a few seconds, and LW hitting the post from about 5 yards out – very much like he is our version Ian Henderson.
The second half saw one change for Dale. JA was replaced by NL. This meant that KD was pulled out to the left wing, so Lamby could go up top and be his usual poaching self. And it didn’t take long for him to make a mark on the game.

LW – who had now moved into the middle of the park after IM replaced PD – played a lovely through ball between the Preston full back and centre back for NL to run onto and calmly slot the ball through the oncoming keeper’s legs and into the net. 3-0 Dale.
Now at points last season we would have taken our foot off the gas after getting the third goal, but after a very bad experience at Gigg Lane at the end of last season, we were never going to do that on Saturday. And the fourth didn’t take long to come.

This time the goal came from a short corner. I would like to say it was a well worked goal, straight off the training ground type of thing, but it really wasn’t. KD attempted a 5 yard pass to LW who was screaming for the ball as he made his run. The pass went about 3 yards to the right of LW, who frantically adjusted his run to take control of the ball. Although he had a few touches, “control” would be a strong word to use. Eventually LW managed to square the ball along the edge of the box for Lamby to side foot into the bottom left, doubling his scoring for the day. 4-0 Dale.

The fifth goal was as poorly worked as the fourth, this time the culprits being KD (again!), JiH and RL. JiH and KD were stood over a free-kick. Instead of one of those two hitting it, KD tried to square it for an advancing RL, who had his shot chased down by two Preston defenders, meaning the shot was blocked. Fortunately the ball landed comfortably at NL’s feet, and with him being on his hat-trick, and also with everything he was doing that day working out, he placed the ball in the bottom corner. 5-0 Dale.

Here’s just a small mention of MD’s contribution to the game. Basically, he made some decent runs, but then every shot he had went further away from the goal than where he took the shot from. I think he should be spending a lot of this week having some shooting practise instead of playing fifa in any spare time he has.

The last ten minutes or so were quite shaky for Dale. RW had to pull off his one save of the game, and then JH pulled off a very good last ditch tackle. Although it looked quite good, it could have easily been avoided if his positioning was right in the first place!

The last real bit of action from the day came in the Rochdale goal. This bit of play has been on my mind since I saw it, and I still can’t understand exactly what RW was doing. What can only be described as a very bad cross/shot, was floating into the hands of RW. Unchallenged, and with no movement from the ball, all the dale players turn away waiting for the big punt that was going to come from RW at any second. That punt never came. This was because RW decided he wasn’t going to catch the ball.

Instead, he flapped at the ball and straight through his hands the ball went. Now I was at the other end of the pitch to RW, but I am certain the ball crossed the line. Unfortunately for Preston the Cardinal Langley goal line technology wasn’t working on Saturday and the ref did not give the goal, so the game remained, and finished 5-0.

Team Sheet
Player Name GS GA
1 Rhys Wolstenholme
2 Johnny Hall
3 Joe Walsh
4 Jack Leaming
5 Phil Darlington
6 James Hardman 1 Goal 1 Assist
7 Ryan Lockett 1 Goal
8 Luke Walsh 2 Assists
9 Jamie Albison
10 Kyle Davies 1 Assist
11 Paul Hudson
12 Nick Lamb 3 Goals
13 Mose Davies
14 Iain Murray