Football: Rochdale 1 - 2 Salford City

Rochdale crashed out of the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night (10 November) after Salford came from behind to beat Dale and take second place in Northern Group B and passage through to the knockout stages.

Manny Dieseruvwe’s penalty eight minutes from time sealed the win for Richie Wellens’ side after Bruno Andrade’s free-kick had levelled up Jake Beesley’s opener.

Brian Barry-Murphy made six changes from the side that lost to Stockport at the weekend in the FA Cup whilst the visitors made ten changes from their FA Cup tie; a 2-0 extra time win over Hartlepool United.

Brian Barry-Murphy’s men started well when they took the lead inside eight minutes. A long ball over the top was well taken by Jake Beesley with the summer signing from Solihull Moors keeping his cool to slide the ball past Vaclav Hladky for his first goal in a Rochdale shirt.

That should have been a catalyst to take the game to their lower league opponents but in all honesty, that was as good as it got in the first half as Salford, watched on from the stands by one of the co-owners Gary Neville, dominated possession and chances. Bruno Andrade had two free-kicks that flashed wide, one narrowly wide of the right hand post whilst the other flew just wide of the left. Jay Lynch, coming up against his former side had his hands warmed by a couple of shots from Dan Hawkins as Salford looked the more likely to score.

Andrade crashed a powerful shot off the crossbar with seven minutes remaining whilst Ollie Rathbone’s free-kick from 22 yards out flew well over as the half time whistle was blown; the closest Dale got to the Salford goal since taking the lead early on.

The Ammies started the second half the same as they ended the first seeing plenty of the ball but it was Dale who had a rare shot at goal. Matty Done’s cross from the left fell kindly to Keohane who sent a powerful volley at goal; Hladky equal to it as he pushed the ball away.

The deserved equaliser came eight minutes after the re-start through Bruno Andrade. The Portuguese striker placed his 25 yard free-kick into the bottom left corner with Lynch rooted to the spot.

Wellens knew a draw wasn’t enough to see the side he only took over as manager for last week, progress to the next stage so sent on 6’ 5” midfielder Manny Dieseruvwe and 6’ 4” striker Tom Elliott as a last throw of the dice and the height advantage caused Dale problems. Dieseruvwe planted a header straight at Lynch after being set up well by Luke Burgess whilst the giant midfielder was hauled to the ground inside the box in the 82nd minute with referee Bobby Madley having little hesitation awarding the spot kick. Dieseruvwe stepped up to power the ball into the bottom left corner with Lynch diving the opposite way.

Defeat means Salford go through whilst Dale have to lick their wounds at being dumped out of their second cup competition in three days by lower league opposition.

 

Rochdale: Lynch, Keohane, O’Connell, McNulty, Done, Brierley (Dunne 83), Hopper (Baah 65), Rathbone ©, Dooley, Tavares (Morley 65), Beesley
Substitutes: (not used) Chalton, Bradley, Ryan

Salford: Hladky, Golden, Threlkeld © (Campbell 59), Fieldeing, Berkoe, Denny, Burgess, Smith, Hawkins, Armstrong (Elliott 69), Andrade (Dieseruvwe 65)
Substitutes: (not used) Evans, Ditchfield, Sargent

Referee: Mr B Madley
Assistants: Mr G Fyvie & Mr B Hall
Fourth Official: Mr S Mather