Scunthorpe 1 (Mirfin 90) Rochdale 0 - Full Time Report

Photo: Jon Coluccio

Joe Thompson wins a header.

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Scunthorpe stole a place in the Northern Section Semi Final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy with an injury time winner.

A game of very few chances ended with David Mirfin nodding Scunthorpe into the next round after Lee Thorpe had missed a one on one at the other end minutes earlier. Dale even had chance to take the game to penalties as Chris Dagnall fired inches wide in the very dying stages.

Keith Hill was pleased with his side’s performance but was disappointed to be knocked out of the competition.

“The display was superb. We rung the changes and changed our formation and I think it is a great complement to us that they changed their formation to combat us.

“It was working and I was really pleased with the performance and we were ready for penalties, if not a win, but we conceded that last minute goal.

“We nearly went ninety minutes without conceding against a very good Scunthorpe side who I am sure will be in the top three at the end of the season.”

As might have been expected Hill made wholesale changes to the side which ran out victorious against Brentford on Saturday.

Three of the outfield substitutes came into the team, with Clark Keltie coming in for Gary Jones, Joe Thompson in for Adam Rundle and Adam Le Fondre in for Chris Dagnall.

Hill also handed a debut to Mark Jones, who has been on the periphery of the Dale squad over the last couple of months.

The opening period in the dense Glanford Park fog was lively enough between two teams that have clearly not been afraid to attack in their respective league games but there were not many genuine chances.

Will Buckley and Le Fondre were both looking lively and if a chance was to arrive for the visitors it looked as though it would be one of those two on the end of it.

And so the chance eventually arrived for Buckley, who had dominated early on, after the wide man received a short Tom Kennedy corner and cut into the box to shape a cross turned shot that Joe Murphy had to turn behind for another corner.

After the promising opening the game then became turned rather dull, to say it was a fixture between two teams that are known to favour attack ahead of defence.

The home side’s first attempt did not arrive until there was only minutes left in the half and the less said about it the better as Sam Togwell blasted the ball out of the ground.

Minutes later they came closer to testing Sam Russell as David Mirfin’s header looped just over the cross bar.

The home side came on much stronger at the start of the second half and they missed a golden chance as Jonathan Forte’s cross came all the way through for Michael Woolford to volley at the back post but he fired badly wide.

Dale weathered what was more of a shower than a storm and then brought on Dagnall for Jones to try and inject more impetus to an attack that had still only yielded Buckley’s first half shot.

The young winger was on the end of Dale’s next shot, which arrived with half an hour to play as Buckley burst through on a Dale break and fired at goal from 18 yards. The shot was powerful but straight at Murphy.

Scunthorpe tried their luck from a similar range at the other end and substitute Ben May’s effort met with a similar result as Russell gathered comfortably.

More substitutes came and Scunthorpe’s seemed to be the more effective as they pushed for a winner but in the context of the game it still meant that the Dale keeper had very little to do.

He came close to being forced into action as May tried to curl one from the left hand edge of the box but the ball flew just past the far post.

Time continued to bore on but it looked as though Dale might win it in the final minute as Lee Thorpe went clear but he fired at the legs of Murphy. Thorpe got a second bite of the cherry but again Murphy was able to save.

Instead it was the home side who grabbed the latest of winners through Mirfin, although there was more than a suspicion of hand ball from the back post knock back that allowed Mirfin to nod home from unmissable range.

Attendance: 2474

Scunthorpe: Murphy, Iriekpen, Byrne, Sparrow, Hayes (May 67), Lea, Mirfin, Woolford, McCann, Togwell (Morris 67), Forte (Hurst 73).
Subs (not used): Lillis, Pearce.

Booked: Lea, Mirfin.

Rochdale: Russell, Wiseman, Kennedy, Stanton, McArdle, Thompson (Rundle 77), Keltie, Toner, M. Jones (Dagnall 58), Buckley, Le Fondre (Thorpe 69).
Subs (not used): Spencer, Holness.

Attempts (on target): Scunthorpe 8 (2) Rochdale 6 (4)
Free kicks: Scunthorpe 20 Rochdale 13
Offside: Scunthorpe 2 Rochdale 4
Corners: Scunthorpe 7 Rochdale 4

Referee: J. Moss