Dale come back to snatch a point

Rochdale 2 - 2 Chester City

Similar to Dale’s meeting with Chester just over a month ago, an entertaining encounter was enjoyed by the fans that descended on a freezing cold Spotland on Saturday. The football on a difficult pitch thankfully provided some warmth for the spectators as Rochdale came from two goals behind to rescue a point after an inspired second half display.

Gary Brown made his first start of the season, taking up the right back position, which allowed Jamie Clarke to display his passing skills from the midfield in place of Ernie Cooksey who was left out of the squad. Brown rewarded Steve Parkin with an excellent, calm display and showed that he can do a job for the team during Dale’s important upcoming fixtures. Brown was a strong contender for man of the match but his performance was eclipsed by that of Gary Jones who won every ball in the midfield and led by example in carrying his team forward; the Gary Jones of old had turned up for this game and there isn’t going to be any better players on the pitch when that is the case.

The game kicked off as scheduled but playing flowing football was never going to be easy on a pitch that was clearly frozen in places, however both sides tried their best to play the game the right way despite the occasional comical slip in the more difficult areas. It was Rochdale who set the pace early on; Blair Sturrock was released by a superb Holt pass but the striker could not get a shot away before David Artell got back to tackle.

Chester then began to get into the game and they looked dangerous from crosses whipped into the box and could have scored on numerous occasions, thanks, in part, to a Dale defence that was struggling to deal with the ball being regularly fired into their area. With crosses clearly proving difficult, Gary Brown did well to block one such attempt with two Chester players waiting to pounce.

The visiting side were displaying some nice touches around the area and this led to their next opening as Drummond was put through perfectly by Richardson. The midfielder latched onto the knock down and fired at goal only for Gilks to save well by turning the ball out for a corner.

Rochdale seemed to be lacking ideas when in possession whereas Chester seemed to know exactly what they had to do to send their strikers through for attempts on goal. Following a spell of pressure they took the lead on twenty minutes thanks to a mistake by Gilks in the Rochdale goal. Gilks came to catch a low cross but he got it all wrong under close attention from both attackers and defenders. The ball spilled to Bolland who had the simple task of scoring into the open goal.

Rochdale immediately tried to put their goalkeeper out of his misery with a spell of pressure of their own. Grant Holt headed the ball onto the Goodall at the far post. The left sided youngster volleyed across goal but his attempt was well saved by Mackenzie. Holt was next to try his luck after a good deep cross from left-back Jaszczun but he placed his header just wide of the mark with Mackenzie beaten. The Chester stopper was called into action again minutes later as he denied Sturrock following another excellent ball from Jaszczun.

Chester went in search of a second but during one attempt to do so they sent Dale on a break following a mix-up from a corner routine. Dale had men up the break as Sturrock was again put through but he was caught in two minds with the close presence of Carl Reagan denying him a shooting chance, eventually he set up Gary Jones but his shot was blocked.

Rochdale finished the half strongly and hopes were high that they could find an equaliser and possible go on to win the game after the break. The home side clearly thought that those hopes could bear fruit as the started the second half as they finished the first; Goodall’s cross was well cleared by Bolland before the Dale attackers could pounce. Dale continued to take the game to the visitors and Blair Sturrock should have done better as he miss-timed a close range header, which looped over the bar.

Chester then scored a second against the run of play and seemingly put an end to Dale’s hopes for the afternoon. The Rochdale defence once again failed to clear their lines in the box. They had three chances to do so but each time the ball continued to bounce around in the box before falling to Davies in space and he placed the ball into the corner giving Gilks no chance.

However, Rochdale were determined to take the game to their opponents and to take something from what now looked like a lost cause. They were gifted a goal with twenty minutes still to play and hope of a point then turned to belief. Reagan gifted the ball to Cartwright on the right and his pin-point cross found Sturrock who finished coolly by chesting the ball home from close range.

With Chester’s threat completely nullified they seemed to be there for the taking and Steve Parkin put Rickie Lambert on to go with three attackers in place of Cartwright. The substitution certainly did the trick as barely a minute later Rochdale were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area. Needless to stay, Lambert stepped up and with the Chester wall and keeper wary of a top-corner special, Lambert fired the ball low into the bottom corner, leaving the Chester keeper to examine his wall-building capabilities; Lambert had scored with considerable ease.

Chester were not in the game at all at this stage and Rochdale pushed for a winner in order to produce a similar score line to the one they achieved in the reverse fixture. Goodall had the home side’s best chance in the closing stages as he was sent through but the angle proved difficult and he fired at the legs of Mackenzie has his attempted nut-meg didn’t quite come off.

It was an inspired come back by the Rochdale outfit and one that they must now capitalise on by winning at home to Shrewsbury next weekend, only then will they reap the benefits of this hard-fought point. Chester will be glad to see the back of Rochdale this season having only gained one point from them this season despite finding themselves in the lead during both games. Both games have been a great advert for league two football but fans of a nervous disposition will be glad that they are now over.