Carlisle Clinch Title at Spotland

Rochdale 0 – 2 Carlisle United

Carlisle earned a comfortable victory in Rochdale’s last home game of the season to win the League Two title. Carlisle were seldom troubled on their route to victory by a Rochdale side who seemed to have no intention of spoiling the party for their former manager Paul Simpson. Two first half goals secured the win and the second half was played out with ease as Carlisle showed their superiority.

Carlisle announced their intentions to win the title from an early stage at Spotland with a string of early chances. The league’s top-scorer Karl Hawley proved to be a tricky customer for a Dale defence which included Gareth Griffiths, playing his last game at Spotland before announcing his retirement. Hawley first tested Gilks with seven minutes played; the Dale keeper forced to turn the striker’s shot around the post from a tight angle. The visitors continued to show their dominance and Adam Murray should have done better than to miss the target with a first time effort.

Rochdale’s first real opening arrived on twenty minutes thanks to good work by Scott Warner. The young midfielder, playing out of position on the right hand side, chased down what appeared to be a lost cause to hook the ball into the danger zone and the Carlisle defence could only clear as far as Lambert on the edge of the box but Dale’s goal machine could not hit the target with his shot.

This sparked a spell of pressure for the home side and typically, Lambert was at the heart of their attacking play. Having picked up the ball on the edge of the box the striker picked his way through the Carlisle defence but his eventual shot was blocked before it could reach Carlisle keeper Kieren Westwood. Lambert was again involved in creating Dale’s best chance of the evening. An inside ball found Dagnall on the shoulder of the last defender and he bought himself a yard before volleying just past the post with Westwood beaten.

Carlisle did not let Dale dominate for long and within 10 minutes of Dale’s only real chance of the entire game, they took the lead. The goal came in simple fashion; a Peter Murphy corner was headed home by former Dale centre-half Danny Livesey from close range. The goal settled the visitors and they looked for more against a Rochdale side that simply could not cope as Carlisle attacked in numbers; another goal came with half-time beckoning, Peter Murphy met a diagonal ball at the far post and smashed it beyond Gilks to give Carlisle a cushion that they never looked like giving up.

Halftime brought an attacking change from the Dale manager as Blair Sturrock took to the field in place of the lacklustre Jon Boardman. Sturrock took up an unfamiliar right wing position, leaving Scott Warner to take up an even less familiar right-back berth; the substitution had little effect as Dale did not look capable of creating an opening no matter how many attacking players they had on the field.

The second half was a dull affair with chances kept to premium, Carlisle continued to dictate but seemed happy with their goals tally whilst Rochdale laboured on to little avail, the introduction of Ernie Cooksey added some passion whilst youngster Theo Coleman provided some excitement with the ball at his feet but none of the Dale players could find an end product against a comfortable Carlisle defence.

The only real opportunity fell to the visitors when Chris Billy looked to curl a shot into the top corner but Gilks was equal to the effort with a brilliant save to tip the ball over the bar. The referee put the Dale fans and players out of their misery not long after and the Cumbrians celebrated in front of the hoards of travelling supporters; the home fans that trudged home after a disappointing campaign, those that remained showed their appreciation to the players and to their former manager whose single season at Spotland seems somewhat insignificant after achieving back to back promotions with Carlisle; meanwhile Rochdale struggle on in League Two for another season.