Football: Rochdale 1 - 2 Walsall

Rochdale succumbed to a narrow defeat to in-form Walsall who ended the game with 10 men after Zeli Ismail was sent off late on.

A mistake by debutant keeper Magnus Norman gifted Josh Ginnelly the ball but his heavily deflected shot from distance rolled into the bottom corner to give the visitors the lead against the run of play.

Dale’s lacklustre attack rarely threatened Liam Roberts in the Walsall goal and when half-time substitute Ismail’s solo goal doubled their advantage, the game looked over, but instead it sparked Dale into life and they got a goal back a minute later through Callum Camps.

Aaron Wilbraham’s towering header hit the post with Camps on hand to tap in from a yard out. Ismail was shown a second yellow card for deliberate handball and despite Rochdale throwing everything at Walsall in the six minutes of added time, they just couldn’t score an equaliser.

After the heavy midweek defeat to Barnsley, Rochdale manager Keith Hill made five changes to the starting line-up. With Josh Lillis injured, there was a debut for on loan Fulham goalkeeper Magnus Norman; Joe Rafferty returned to the right back, and Callum Camps, Oliver Rathbone and Aron Wilbraham were also given the nod.

Rochdale made all the early running but lacked the cutting edge to trouble the Walsall back line - Liam Roberts theatrically punched away a couple of crosses was the closest Dale came to  getting near to scoring.

The first real chance of the game fell to Walsall and they punished a mistake from Norman. The keeper’s poor kick out fell at the feet of Ginnelly 30 yards out and when his shot was fired at the almost empty goal, it hit MJ Williams and spun over the line and away from the stricken keeper.

The second half was another cagey affair in the main until half time substitute Ismail jinked his way through to double Walsall’s advantage - he evaded a couple of poor challenges outside the area before turning inside the box to curl past Norman.

The two goal advantage only lasted 60 seconds as Dale got a lifeline through Camps. Calvin Andrew’s cross from the right was headed at goal by Wilbraham and when the ball crashed back off the upright, Camps was quickest to react to tap over the line.

Walsall were reduced to ten men when Ismail was shown a second yellow card for deliberate handball, after receiving his first one just 15 minutes earlier for kicking the ball away.

Dale's MJ Williams fired horribly over from seven yards out with just the keeper to beat and Camps warmed the hands of Roberts with a delightful curling shot but Dale could not score the goal needed to take a share of the points.

Another frustrating day for the Dale faithful who are seeing individual errors costing the team dear at the moment.

Rochdale: Norman, McGahey, MJ Williams, McNulty, Rafferty, Done (Ntlhe 85), Camps, Perkins (Inman 68), Rathbone (Andrew 55), Wilbraham, Henderson ©
Subs: (not used) Moore, Delaney, Randall, Cannon

Walsall: Roberts, Devlin, Guthrie, Fitzwater, Leahy, Morris (Wilson 90), Osbourne, Dobson ©, Ginnelly (Ismail 46), Cook, Ferrier (Gordon 67)
Subs: (not used) Dunn, Kinsella, Kouhyar, Candlin

Referee:  Mr G Salisbury
Assistants: Mr B Cropp & Miss H Byrne
Fourth Official: Mr A Moore

Attendance: 3,080 (566 from Walsall)