Prestwich’s four game winning run was brought to an end in sickening fashion with the visitors grabbing goals in the 4th minute and agonisingly 4 minutes from the end, with further drama added by Prestwich missing a penalty and chance to equalise in the last minute of the game.
An early omen of the bad day came with the horrendous weather conditions and in the form of two players arriving late for kick off which left Prestwich having to start the game with 10 men with the already injured Chris Hopkins amongst that number.
The visitors sensed an opportunity and took full advantage cutting through a hesitant Prestwich defence with ease to slot a nicely placed shot wide to the right of Nathan Williams in the Prestwich net.
The Prestwich 10 gradually got a foothold in the game and despite disadvantage in numbers started to create several chance of their own but the driving snow and winds were making it hard to get any fluency and whilst wide men Tito Miguel and Martin Hill were making good inroads down the flanks the final passes were frequently being picked up or stalled by the wind and off target.
Rochdale to their credit were playing a nice passing game building patiently from the back in similar style to Prestwich’s preferred approach, and it was serving them well until Prestwich were finally made up to the full quota by the arrival of Ross Salmon and Liam Burke on 25 mins.
Once back up to a full squad Prestwich took control of the game with Stefan Rapacz and Martin Hill both coming close to snatching an equaliser but the wind was still playing havoc with anything above head height and the score remained 0-1 at half time.
Prestwich really set about their opponents in the second half and it was no surprise when Darren Buckley threaded a beautiful ball through to Rapacz who fired home low and hard from 20 yards out for 1-1.
Firmly on top now Prestwich pushed forward in search of a winner with Hill, Miguel and Rapacz the main protagonists. Time and time again the ball fizzed across the Rochdale goal on the floor and in the air with nobody quite managing to make a telling connection.
Buckley, Salmon and Aldair Victorano started making the occasional burst through in support too but Rochdale just managed to hold firm with a combination of luck and some good solid defending.
Offensively Rochdale still managed the occasional counter, but by and large Prestwich’s central defenders in the form of Krzysztof Rapacz and Paul Taylor took control to tidy things up.
With the clock ticking and it looking like Prestwich were going to have to settle for a draw Victorano picked the ball up centrally just inside the Rochdale half and made a surging slaloming run into the Rochdale box. With defenders drawn to him he held on to the ball for just too long and was dispossessed, as Prestwich players had swarmed forward in support of Victorano they were caught short at the back by an early ball forward from the intercepting Rochdale defender.
Rochdale’s striker latched on to the ball evading Rapcz and Taylor and coolly placed it into the right hand corner for a really nice finish. The game wasn’t over though, right on the death Miguel went on a similar run to Victorano but this time getting beyond the last defender who crudely scythed him down.
Miguel took the penalty himself but went for placement rather than power and the keeper saved well to compound an altogether miserable day at the office for the Prestwich boys.
