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Favourites Mellor are too strong

30/ 9/2003

Lacrosse
Mellor 13
Rochdale 9

ROCHDALE began their North of England Premier season with a tough task - a visit to Mellor to face one of the title favourites.

The Redbrook-based outfit has a new captain in Matt Croney, and new coach Paul Smeeton,and the change looked to have done the trick as Blues raced into an early 3-0 lead.

A hard-fought second quarter saw the hosts fight back and an exciting match was nicely poised with the scores level at 5-5 by half time.

The break suited Rochdale better and they grabbed two goals before Mellor clicked into gear and equalised, thanks to some poor defending, before the end of the third quarter.

With everything to play for Rochdale stuttered and conceded four goals without reply. They did manage to get two back, but a late brace secured an opening day win for Mellor and left Rochdale with plenty to work on over the next few weeks.

The positives for Rochdale included the performance of new American professional Chaz Bulera who showed off his finishing prowess with three superb goals. David Bamford and debutant Glenn Humphries also impressed.

• Rochdale A made their bow in Division Two against Sheffield Steelers and despite a 15-5 reverse showed plenty of promise.

They trailed 9-2 at the halfway stage, but picked things up and actually won the final quarter 3-2 thanks to goals from Craig Nichol, Mark Binns and Martin Binns.