Dale blow Burnley away

The side was missing all 2nd years as well as the injured duo of Tom Blackler and Dale Underwood. Again we started with U-15 defender Ben Hoskin and the 3 subs who came on were all schoolboys. Dale had former Burnley schoolboy Raph Evans in the heart of their defence and the cousin of the recently released Cayne Hanley in attack.

It all started so well for us as we took the lead in the opening 5 minutes. The ball was fed into Jay Rodriguez, who shielded it well before playing an incisive though ball into the path of Rob Turner. The big striker made no mistake, clipping it past the keeper to make it 1-0.

From this point on though it was as good as one-way traffic. By the time 20 minutes had elapsed it was 3-1 as the Rochdale attack ran riot. All three goals were alike, with shots across the keeper into the far post after a striker had broke fee from the defence. Before the half hour mark it was 4-1 as the Dale skipper fired a looping volley past the stranded Lee Matthews.

We managed only token resistance in the face of constant probing from the visitors and two headers from Jay Rodriguez, both off target, brought the half to an end.

After the interval it was more of the same. We couldn't take advantage of the wind as Rochdale had and they continued to pound us. The pressure led to a booking for our Captain Jack Overson as he sought to stem the flow but nothing could halt a buoyant Dale.

We attempted to push out and a through ball set the left side attacker free to hit home past a horribly exposed Matthews. By the time 15 2nd half minutes had elapsed it was 6-1 as the ball was swept home from no more than a yard out after our back line had been picked apart.

The misery was completed on the 90th minute as Cayne's cousin Theo grabbed his hat trick from the spot to make it 7-1 and complete the rout.

Team:- Lee Matthews, Dean Stott, Paul Casey (Chris Anderson), Jack Overson, Ben Hoskin, Ali Akbar, Lewis Craig, Connor Smith (Ash Young), Adam Kay (Tom Bradley), Rob Turner, Jay Rodriguez.