Rochdale Supporters FC won their 14th
consecutive league game with a 3-0 victory over Bury’s B
side at Heywood Sports Centre. Manager Mark Woodall had
the luxury of being able to name an unchanged team from
the one that triumphed 7-2 at Halifax the week before.
Bury B were an unknown quantity with Rochdale only
having played the A side before this weekend and they
provided stiff opposition. It took about 25 minutes
before Dale managed to open the scoring, Liam Ratcliffe
picked the ball up on the right hand side, skinned a few
defenders before firing confidently past the keeper at
his near post.
Dale were confident that this would
open the floodgates but it never really happened on a
difficult surface at Heywood. Bury almost pulled it back
to one a piece soon after with a huge long ball over the
top that the Dale defence let bounce. It bounced all the
way through and the striker got a good toe end on it but
keeper Jon Coluccio pulled off a superb stop to keep his
side ahead.
Within minutes Rochdale produced by
far the best piece of football in the game. Ryan
Higginbotham raced along the left wing and played a
superb one two with Paul Veevers. Higginbotham sent a
dangerous low ball across the box that was turned into
his own net by one of the Bury defenders.
The second half saw further good
chances missed by Rochdale but Ratcliffe made it 3-0
with another excellent finish. He almost added to his
tally seconds earlier when the Bury keeper charged out
to clear the ball but it took an unfortunate bobble
under his foot. Fortunately for him a defender was on
hand to clear the danger.
Jon Hudson came on for the last 10
minutes and almost scored with his first touch, a header
from a corner being cleared off the line and Ratcliffe
spurned the chance of a hat trick when his shot
rebounded off the inside of the post into the keepers
arms.
So in the end a comfortable 3-0 win
for Rochdale SFC which sees them lie in second place in
the IFA league with 4 games in hand on top of the table
Watford to leave them firmly in control in this league
campaign. Rochdale have a tough league and cup double
fixture against Ayr United at Heywood this Saturday.
