Rochdale 4 - 1 Gillingham

Peter Vincenti scored his first of an injury hit season to round off Rochdale's scoring

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Rochdale won for the first time in 10 games as they comfortably dispatched lacklustre Gillingham on a wet day at the Crown Oil Arena.

Goals from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Ian Henderson, Callum Camps and Peter Vincenti earned Keith Hill his 200th win as Rochdale manager.

Josh Parker brought the game level at 1-1 before Rochdale stepped up a gear which Gillingham, who had defender Zesh Rehman sent off just before the hour mark, couldn’t live with.

After late goals denied Rochdale points in the last few games, Keith Hill brought back keeper Conrad Logan into his starting line-up. There was also a return for Joe Bunney who has been out injured since 2 January and Matt Lund regained his starting position after serving a two match suspension.

Rochdale dominated from the off as they pressed their opponents and played some wonderful fluid football which saw them go in front after just 10 minutes.

Ian Henderson picked out Mendez-Laing on the edge of the area, he still had plenty to do but finished with aplomb past Stuart Nelson from outside the box. All the Rochdale players rushed over to the dugout to hold aloft Joe Thompson’s number 15 shirt after the midfielder this week revealed his cancer had returned.

The whole stadium came together in the 15th minute for a minute's applause for Thompson to show their support for the player.

Despite Rochdale's, and against the run off play, Gillingham equalised. Mark Byrne’s left wing cross found Josh Parker whose header came back off the post but the striker was on hand to finish at the second attempt.

The Rochdale front three of Mendez-Laing, Andrew and Henderson were causing all sorts of problems for Gillingham with the latter almost heading Dale back in front from a Joe Bunney cross, only the woodwork denying him.

Seconds later and Henderson was denied again by a smart flying save from Nelson as Dale looked to turn the screw, but a goal for the captain wasn’t too far away.

Mendez-Laing’s forward header sent Henderson racing clear and with just the keeper to beat, he clipped a wonderful shot over Nelson.

It almost got even better for the Crown Oil Arena faithful when Mendez-Laing’s trickery allowed him time to shoot, again the post coming to the Gillingham rescue.

The second half was much like the first with Rochdale on top and they were soon 3-1 up. Just four minutes after the re-start a swift counter attack involving Jamie Allen, Henderson and Mendez-Laing was too much for Gillingham; Camps on hand to turn in an unselfish cut back for his fourth of the season.

Gillingham had seen a mini revival in recent weeks after looking over their shoulder at the bottom four for most of the season but in this game they were certainly second best and rarely threatened. Even when they did break through, Conrad Logan used his big frame to block anything that came at him.

At 3-1 down, any hopes of a Gillingham come back vanished when central defender Zesh Rehman was shown a second yellow card on the hour mark for a high challenge on Mendez-Laing.

Dale controlled the remainder of the game and added a fourth goal in stoppage time through Peter Vincenti. On as a substitute, he was fouled by Lee Martin but referee Andy Haines allowed the advantage and Vincenti rounded the stricken Nelson before tapping in his first of an injury hit season.

Rochdale: Logan, McGahey, McNulty, Canavan, Bunney, Camps, Allen, Lund (Rathbone 75), Mendez-Laing (McDermott 81), Henderson (c), Andrew (Vincenti 75).
Subs: (not used) Wilson, Owusu, Morley, Kitching.

Gillingham: Nelson, Muldoon, Ehmer (c), Rehman, Dickenson, Martin, Byrne, Dack, Hessenthaler (Wagstaff 62), Parker (List 64), McDonald (Cundle 82).
Subs: (not used) Osadebe, Quigley, Mbo, Holy.

Referee: Mr A Haines
Assistants: Mr S Wade and Mr G Liddle
Fourth Official: Mr P Gibbons

Attendance: 2,582