Football: Rochdale 1 - 4 Peterborough

Rochdale’s first home game of the new season ended in a heavy defeat by a much-fancied Peterborough United despite Ian Henderson’s 17th minute penalty giving Rochdale the lead.

Three goals in the last twenty minutes of the first half set Peterborough on their way to victory with Peterborough sealing the win with a fourth in stoppage time at the end of the game.

After a magnificent opening day win last weekend at Burton Albion, Dale manager Keith Hill made one change to the starting line-up, Ryan Delaney preferred in of defence with Jim McNulty dropping to the bench.

Dale started off well and were much the better side for the opening 25 minutes.

Wilbraham heading just over from a Henderson cross inside the opening moments looked to set the tone for the game.

Despite seeing plenty of the ball and putting crosses in from wide areas of the pitch, Aaron Chapman in the Peterborough goal wasn’t tested as much as he should have been.

Peterborough’s danger man was Siriki Dembele, the Ivorian’s trickery and pace causing problems for the Dale backline and when he got a sight at goal after ten minutes, the winger rifled a shot at goal from 25 yards which Josh Lillis tipped over the cross bar.

Dale took the lead midway through the first half when Joe Rafferty was tripped by Colin Daniel inside the area -Dale captain Ian Henderson making no mistake from the spot rolling the ball into the corner sending Chapman the wrong way.

With the Dale fans expecting more, Peterborough were back level just nine minutes later with Dembele the instigator. After receiving the ball on the left, Dembele turned away from Rafferty and sent a perfect cross towards an unmarked Cummings at the back post who planted his header into the net.

Peterborough turned the game on its head when they edged in front just after the half hour mark. A free-kick on the left from Dembele was played beyond the far post and Cummings went from goal scorer to provider as he put a header back across goal for O’Hara to head in from close range.

As the game entered first half stoppage time, Dale had a glorious chance to equalise when a Joe Rafferty shot deflected to the feet of Done but he couldn’t sort out his feet and his weak shot never troubled Chapman.

That miss proved costly as seconds later Peterborough stretched their lead to two goals. A long ball down the left picked out Dembele and as McGahey tried to hold off the Ivorian referee Backhouse adjudged the Dale man had fouled and awarded a free-kick just outside the box to the left-hand side. Dembele dusted himself down and powered a shot at Lillis’ near post which the Dale keeper could only parry and Matt Godden reacted quickest to tap the ball into the unguarded net.

That goal meant Peterborough could dictate the game and held Dale at arm’s length throughout the second half.

A looping Wilbraham header dropping just the wrong side of the crossbar was the closest Dale got in the early stages of the second half.

At the other end the dangerous Dembele sent a shot that beat Lillis but grazed the top of the cross bar.

Substitute Calvin Andrew saw his looping header clawed away by Chapman with fellow sub Kgosi Ntlhe firing over the loose ball from inside the six-yard box.

With the game almost at its conclusion, a rare mistake from MJ Williams when trying to run out of defence with the ball gifted Peterborough a fourth. He was caught in possession on the half way line and when the ball broke to O’Hara, the winger raced at goal and slotted beyond Lillis to put the gloss on a good away day for the travelling 565 Peterborough fans.

Rochdale: Lillis, McGahey (Cannon 66), MJ Williams, Delaney, Rafferty (Andrew 49), Done (Ntlhe 77), Camps, Perkins, Inman, Wilbraham, Henderson ©
Subs: (not used) Moore, McNulty, Rathbone, Adshead

Peterborough: Chapman, Naismith, Tafazolli, Bennett, Daniel, Ward, Woodyard ©, Dembele (Cooke 85), O’Hara, Godden (Yorwerth 90), Cummings (Toney 71)
Subs: (not used) Tyler, Reed, Cooper, Denton
 
Referee: Mr A Backhouse
Assistants: Mr D Gratton & Mr K Haycock
Fourth Official: Mr B Gordon

Attendance: 3,683