After three straight losses, United’s under-18 team defeated Rochdale AFC 3-2 on Saturday morning at Creighton Rugby Club thanks to two goals from Romeo Park and a winner from Robbie Swinburn.
Following losses to Wrexham, Blackpool, and Shrewsbury, Mark Birch’s team entered the match with the intention of exerting early pressure and dominating Rochdale.
After a tight first ten minutes between the two teams, Darren Ehimamiegho gave the visitors the lead, thus things didn’t go as planned for United. Dale’s excellent left-wing play saw the ball fall to Ehimamiegho, who shot past Thomas Randall, the United ‘keeper, at the near post to give Dale the lead early on.
Romeo Park and Freddie O’Donoghue both caused problems for the Dale defenders as United kept their heads up and put pressure back on Rochdale.
It was eight minutes after Dale’s opening goal when United’s good response after falling behind was rewarded. After some deft back-and-forth passing between Park and Anton Dudik, Park’s effort from the edge of the box took a tiny deflection, catching the Rochdale ‘keeper off guard and bringing United level.
After sixty seconds, United was ahead through Park once more. The Dale defence gave up possession after some great pressure from the United front line, and Park took advantage of the situation to shoot the ball into the bottom corner from 20 yards out.
With 30 minutes played, the fourth goal of the game was scored. United failed to clear a Rochdale attack after the United defence appealed that the ball had rolled out of play, the visitors took advantage of the poor clearance and Oscar Kelly drew the visitors level.
The half-time interval arrived and both sides headed into the break with the scoreline at 2-2.
United played on the front foot following the beginning of the second half creating several chances through Park, Robbie Swinburn and substitute Dan Hopper.
Eventually United’s efforts paid off after Park found Swinburn who dribbled his way into the box before shifting the ball onto his left foot and finding the bottom corner to give United a 3-2 lead after
71 minutes.
United finished the game strong to win at home twice in a row in 2024.
“I think we deserved to get the three points,” Birch stated following the win. We persisted, and while it wasn’t our best performance ever, we did a good job of defending when they hit us with everything.
“I think we always believed we could come back into the game, even after falling behind 1-0. The fact that we gave them a simple chance to tie the game when we led 2-1 was even more frustrating since we occasionally lack the motivation to shut down games.
became caught off guard once more, and it is something we need to improve on.
“I thought each one of the lads put in a good shift and it was nice to get a win again after the last few games we’ve played.”
