Rochdale 1 - 1 Hartlepool

Date published: 02 April 2024

Devante Rodney rescued a point for 10-man Rochdale with a late equaliser after Hartlepool failed to take advantage of playing against ten men following Kairo Mitchell being shown a straight red card late in the first half.

Rochdale had the better of the first half with Cian Hayes causing the Hartlepool defence problems. Hayes it was who came close to giving Rochdale the lead, but his shot hit the cross bar.

The game changed when Dale were reduced to ten men when Mitchell, who minutes earlier had missed the best chance of the half following a flowing Dale move, was given a straight red card for a tackle on Tom Parkes in the 39th minute.

Jacob Chapman kept Dale in the game in the second half, the keeper saving a Louis Stephenson shot before tipping Emmanuel Dieseruvwe’s effort around the post. However, it was from the resulting corner that Hartlepool took the lead in the 65th minute; Joe Grey finding the net from close range.

For the last quarter of an hour, despite the man disadvantage, Dale put pressure on the Hartlepool defence and looked to have reaped a reward when Hayes jinked his way into the penalty area and curled a shot low to the far corner. It looked on its way in until Hartlepool goalkeeper Peter Jameson got his fingertips to it to divert the ball just round the post.

Dale continued searching for the equaliser and they had a chance when awarded a freekick on the edge of the Hartlepool penalty area, but Rodney hit his shot well over the bar.

With just minutes left to play of the time added on Dale launched another attack; a long ball from Ryan East found man-of-the-match Rodney and he rounded goalkeeper Jameson on the edge of the penalty area to score and give Dale the point they deserved.