Shocking display puts a point on the board

Dale goalscorer Chris Dagnall

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Hereford United 1 (Robinson 27)
Rochdale 1 (Dagnall 22 pen)

Rochdale picked up their first point of the season from a performance that certainly didn’t merit such a reward. Dale manager Keith Hill was delighted to pick up that vital first point in full knowledge that his side’s display had been the poorest of the season thus far. Hill admitted that his side stole a point and claimed that it would have been ‘absolute daylight robbery’ if Dale had snatched a winner from a late breakaway.

Hereford carved out chances all afternoon, whilst stagnant Dale moves broke down easily as their slow play left them bereft of attacking options. Rochdale had two shots on target to show for their entire afternoon’s efforts. They scored from the first of these, a penalty to take the lead; a spot kick somewhat softly awarded by referee Graham Horwood for a trip on Chris Dagnall. Dagnall calmly converted the penalty.

And that was basically that for Rochdale’s goal scoring efforts, their brand of football certainly was not going to give them a goal from open play, their only other attempt on target coming from a scuffed Rory Prendergast shot that trickled through to Hereford keeper Wayne Brown.

Rochdale’s lead lasted a full five minutes before some rank bad defending cost them the equaliser. A punt up field bounced once as it came over the heads of the defenders and Theo Robinson gleefully raced onto it and finished well beyond James Spencer in the Dale goal.

Signs that the Dale back line were ready to lose the plot had already been in evidence and if Hereford’s attackers had been in goal scoring mood Dale could have been on the end of a demoralising battering, as it is Hereford will be devastated that they hadn’t managed to see Dale off and emerge comfortably victorious; better sides would have been without even breaking a sweat in the glorious afternoon sunshine.

Hereford would have led had it not been for a couple of clumsy touches by Trevor Benjamin. Lionel Ainsworth’s cross found the former Premiership striker in plenty of space on the edge of the box but his attempted chest control flew through to Spencer and minutes later another clumsy touch from Benjamin, this time yards from the Dale goal, meant the ball hit Spencer as he came out to unconvincingly clear.

After the equaliser Dale came to somewhat rely on the sometimes superb, but often unconvincing fortunes of their keeper in earning them the point that they did not warrant. The keeper kept out Robinson’s volley at full stretch moments before he popped up with the equaliser and, as his defence continued to watch the ball being passed comfortably around them, he was forced to deny the goal scorer once more by turning the ball over from point blank range.

Spencer showed his more calamitous side when he scooped Benjamin’s free-header back into open play when picking the ball up seemed the far easier option. The ball eventually fell to Richard Rose to hammer a low shot that shaved the outside of the post on its way behind. The Dale defence watched on throughout.

The teams stuck to the same script in the second half. Rochdale stared at the shadows of players that flowed so easily beyond reach of a tackle, whilst Hereford cursed their fortunes in front of goal. There would have been little doubt that Keith Hill had stern words with his troops at half time but the half was just minutes old when it became apparent that Dale’s only form of defence was to wave the white flag and hope that Hereford would take pity on surrendering opponents.

Clint Easton skipped gleefully round Simon Ramsden, all afternoon the Dale right back got as close to his man as his team did to playing any sort of penetrative football, and clipped the ball back for Ainsworth to volley over the bar; it seemed Hereford might take pity on the flag wavers after all.

Somehow the chances dried up for Hereford. Their dominance continued of course, it was impossible for that not continue so bad were their opponents, but the Dale defence spent the last half hour getting its act together, with new recruit Guy Branston starting to look like the uncompromising, towering defender that he cerainly looks like in appearance.

Hereford created their last real chance with half an hour still to play, when Benjamin turned Rory McArdle in the penalty area only for his shot from eight yards to be met by a superb save by Spencer, turning the ball around the post to give Hereford another of their total of twelve corners.

The only question left in the game to be answered was who had performed worst, Rochdale or referee Horwood, who had come up with some frankly ludicrous decisions against both sides throughout the afternoon. There was no bias to the decisions, they evened out over the course of the game with both sides receiving some baffling free kicks but it was Dale who payed the long term price of Horwood’s officiating when he sent off David Perkins in the dying minutes for a second bookable offence.

It seemed the harshest of all the decisions. Ainsworth looked to target the already yellow carded Dale midfielder by playing for and getting a free kick after putting the ball through Perkins’ legs and running into him claiming obstruction. Perkins had simply stood still as Ainsworth ran into him, knowing that he had been done by the trick. Not content to award a slightly fortuitous Hereford free kick, Horwood got Perkins moving again by sending him down the tunnel.

This left Dale with five minutes to cling on to their undeserved riches and they managed it despite a couple of heart stopping moments in their penalty area. They even had one chance to commit the greatest steel in all of seven days, since Chester managed the same feat against Dale at Spotland last Saturday in fact, when substitute Adam Rundle raced clear down the left but his woeful cross could only find the hands of the keeper instead of Glenn Murray who had acres of space unmarked in the box. It summed up Dale’s performance, they could not even commit the simplest of daylight robberies, but stealing a point was crime enough.

Attendance: 2732

Hereford: Brown, McClenahan, Rose, Beckwith, Broadhurst (McCombe 46), Ainsworth, Smith (Taylor 81), Easton, Diagouraga, Benjamin (Guinan 65), Robinson.
Subs not used: Ingham, Webb.

Booked: McClenahan, Diagouraga, Brown.

Rochdale: Spencer, Ramsden, Kennedy, Branston, Doolan, Jones (Crooks 74), Perkins, Prendergast (Le Fondre 75), McArdle, Murray, Dagnall (Rundle 90).
Subs not used: Russell, Muirhead.

Booked: McArdle, Perkins, Murray.

Sent Off: Perkins.

Attempts (on target): Hereford 14 (7) Rochdale 8 (2)
Freekicks: Hereford 28 Rochdale 19
Offside: Hereford 2 Rochdale 4
Corners: Hereford 12 Rochdale 2

Referee: G Horwood.