Rochdale 1 Bury 4

04/11/2006

 

Rochdale went into this eagerly awaited derby match missing three key players in Steve Crossley, Paul Veevers and Anthony Kaminskas. Bury had been in good form entering this game winning all 6 of their previous IFA league matches. Nonetheless this was a Bury side that had yet to beat its Rochdale counterparts although that was about to change.

The opening exchanges were fairly quiet with no real chances falling to either side but there was no sign of what was to follow. Soon after though and Bury had taken the lead. It came from a corner that was flicked on by the Bury front man into the bottom corner. According to Bury's website there was some debate over whether it was an OG but the writer of this report can't remember so we will credit it to Tom Zabel!

After a brief fight back from the Dale it they were 2 down within minutes of the opener. A ball to the Bury wideman was well kept hold of and the danger seemed minimal as he insisted on keeping the ball despite the shouts of his team mates for the ball. He held off the challenges from the Dale defence however and sent a cross into the middle of the box which was headed home.

From then on Bury's strikers were causing a lot of problems to the unusually shaky Dale defence. The ball over the top was providing a lot of joy and just a few minutes after the second goal a long clearance was flicked on and raced onto and neatly slotted into the bottom corner.

Rochdale immediately gave themselves a slim chance of a comeback when Andy Lorimer was brought down in the box leaving Craig Milnes with the task of placing home the resulting spot kick which he did with ease. In truth that was about as good as it got for Dale and Bury almost increased their lead to 3 goals soon after when a long throw was headed onto the post.

Half time came and went with the general consensus being that the next goal would be absolutely crucial. Unfortunately it went the way of the visitors but you have to say it was a great goal. A cross from the right was met by a brilliant scissor kick the nestled in the far corner leaving Coluccio in the Dale goal helpless.

Bury thought it was 5 soon after as the Dale keeper was rounded, ball placed in the net and celebrations getting underway. However the linesman's flag was up and the goal was (correctly) judged to be offside and saved the scoreline from getting any worse.

After that very little else happened as Dale attempted to restore some respectability to the scoreline but goals wouldn't come despite the efforts of the Dale players. The game finished with a 4-1 scoreline which in all honesty was probably fair. This was Rochdale's first defeat in the IFA league since joining in January and they will be hoping to bounce back in their next game when they face Barnet in two weeks time and banish this result to the history books.

 

Squad

G - Jon Coluccio

RB - Dave Veevers

LB - Phil Woodall

CB - Simon Irving

CB - Kenny Hindle

RM - Andy Lorimer

LM - Ryan Harwood

CM - Craig Milnes

CM - Jan Harwood

F - Mark Woodall

F - Luke Lloyd

Substitutes

Luke Evans

Sam Wilde

Mark Sweetmore

Jon Hudson