The View from the Stands - Rochdale vs Norwich

The View from the Stands - Rochdale vs Norwich

Rochdale and Norwich fans give their views on the Carling Cup Second Round tie which saw Dale knocked out of the competition on penalties. The entertaining encounter finished one each after extra time and whilst Rory Prendergast and Gary Jones missed their spot kicks for the home side, Norwich scored all four of theirs to win the shootout 4-3. Rochdale dominated the chances in the first half and gained the lead through Glenn Murray but Norwich emerged strongly in the second half and soon equalised through Dion Dublin.

Thoughts from the Rochdale fans come courtesy of posts made on one of the unofficial web site message boards.

"It was a terrific performance and a cracking game. They [Norwich] played some nice football but it was all in front of us; they did not create much. We could and should have won it in extra-time. [Dion] Dublin was class for Norwich, [Chris] Dagnall was clearly our man of the match."

"The players made us proud. There were two teams playing good football but we played the better football. We had more chances and should have tucked them away. Dagnall was quality and in my opinion better than [Ben] Muirhead, who had a great game. [Guy] Branston won everything at the back, hopefully we can sign him."

"Overall, it was another excellent game, with both sides in control for long periods, but I reckon that most of the good chances fell our way.

After half time they [Norwich] stepped things up considerably and deservedly levelled. I thought for ten minutes or so that they would then go on to win comfortably but Dale raised their game.

Hill's substitute of Prendergast for Rundle gave us real impetus and we bossed the last quarter, plus nearly all of extra time. The two chances that we missed right at the death could prove very expensive indeed [Dale may have drawn a big Premiership side in the next round if they had gone through, meaning a big pay out from gate receipts].

We must now go into the Milton Keynes Dons game with renewed belief and approach the game in a positive manner."

Thoughts from the Norwich fans come courtesy of posts made on one of their unofficial web site message boards.

"Frankly we were shocking, Rochdale probably had 15 good chances to score in the whole match. They [Rochdale] should have won because they totally outplayed us.

If [Darren] Huckerby had not played I don't think we would have created many chances, he was virtually our only outlet.

We defended horribly as a team against a team that we should have controlled pretty easily. A lot of the problems were caused by the way Rochdale carved through the midfield and down the wings. If we can't stop Rochdale going forward we are probably going to struggle in the Championship."

"I was quite impressed by Rochdale. I thought they had a bit about them going forward and they are clearly in a false position in the league at the moment. I also enjoyed the ground.

In terms of Norwich's performance, defensively it was the worst I have seen us play for many years. An utter shambles for most of the game."

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View the Rochdale Online match report and photographs from the Rochdale vs Norwich game