Home Win Secures Safety For Dale

Rochdale 2 – 0 Bristol Rovers

Rochdale recorded a comfortable victory over play-off contenders Bristol Rovers at Spotland to finally put an end to their minor relegation fears. Rochdale found themselves a goal ahead and Bristol Rovers found themselves a man down at half time following a late penalty incident and from then on the result was never in doubt; the only surprise being that it took Dale until the ninetieth minute to double their lead following a second half of unbelievable missed chances.

Rochdale began the game brightly and created a host of early chances; Gareth Griffiths caused problems from a corner which was eventually half cleared to Gary Jones who fired the ball back in towards Griffiths who made good contact with the header but could only direct it straight at Scott Shearer in the Bristol goal. The excellent Rickie Lambert then got in the act as he turned his marker before firing in a low shot which produced an excellent save from Shearer who tipped the ball round the post; Lambert proved a joy to watch throughout the afternoon.

With Dale having squandered their early chances, Rovers began to create some of their own and only their strike partnership of Richard Walker and Junior Agogo will know how they did not take the lead with half an hour played. A dangerous ball was fired low into the Dale box and a covered Simon Ramsden and Agogo combined to crash the ball of the underside of the crossbar before Walker managed to fire the rebound over with the goal gaping.

This marked the end of Bristol Rovers’ attacking endeavour for the afternoon but Dale could not convert their possession into goals until the dying stages of the first half. Gary Jones played an excellent through ball which Lambert latched onto but Hinton prevented the Dale striker from pulling the trigger by hauling him down, giving the referee no choice but to award a penalty and send the Bristol defender for an early bath. Lambert placed a cool spot-kick to the left corner to give Dale the lead.

It took fifteen minutes for the second half to spring to life and inevitably it was Dale who began to dominate against their ten man opposition. Rickie Lambert flexed his range of passing skills with a glorious long ball for Chris Dagnall to run on to but the young striker failed to hit the target under pressure from Elliott.

Lambert was running the show and when the striker found himself free in the area with fifteen minutes to go it looked certain that Dale would double their lead. Lambert touched the ball past an advancing Shearer and the Bristol keeper took Lambert down to give Dale a second penalty. Some believed Shearer was lucky to be on the field to get a strong hand on Lambert’s penalty and deflect it away from goal.

Blair Sturrock was introduced in place of a tiring Dagnall with ten minutes to play and this sparked a spell of sustained pressure for the home side which somehow only resulted in a ninetieth minute goal. Sturrock found Cooksey in acres of space on the left hand side of the area but the Dale midfielder put his first time shot horribly wide. Dale continued to put the knife into Rovers’ play-off chances and Gareth Griffiths somehow missed an open net in the dying stages, providing a moment of great comedy for everyone in the ground. Cooksey held the ball up and squared it to Griffiths who had all the time in the world to blast the ball spectacularly into the Sandy Lane end.

Cooksey finally made the win safe after latching onto a well-placed Lambert corner and heading the ball firmly beyond Shearer. The win means Dale can now relax and watch the tense relegation battle unfold below them. With Rushden already relegated, seven other sides are still capable of joining them in the Conference next term. It looked for a time as though Rochdale might be one of them but a recent upturn in form has dragged them clear of the fight and free to concentrate on making much needed changes for next season; starting with the work on the pitch which will commence this week.