Desperate start sees Dale defeated in derby
Date published: 06 October 2007
Rochdale 1 (McArdle 61)
Bury 2 (Mangan 2, Adams 12)
Rochdale’s six game unbeaten run came to an end against local rivals Bury. A woeful start from the home side left them chasing the game with the visitors scoring two goals in the opening 12 minutes. Rochdale got into the uphill battle when Rory McArdle headed his first goal since he signed for the club but Bury held on to claim local bragging rights.
It could not have gone more according to plan for the visitors as their early goals allowed them to defend deeply and play on the counter attack. Dale boss Keith Hill said: “Without question we made an awful start and made some fundamental errors in the first twenty minutes.”
The first of these errors brought the opening goal when Lee Bullock exploited a gaping hole between the home centre halves to play the ball through for Andy Mangan. The striker made no mistake with the finish, prodding the ball beyond James Spencer in the Rochdale goal.
The early goal still could not awaken the Rochdale players and they were in a state of shock when Bury scoring a fortunate second with only twelve minutes played. Nicky Adams collected a long ball over the top on the left hand side of the area and he young winger cut inside to shoot. Adams’ weak effort would have left Spencer with a simple save but a wicked deflection off Kelvin Lomax saw the ball trickle into the corner with the Dale keeper wrong footed.
Hill continued: “Bury’s tactics have worked for them because they’ve got what they came here for and the early goals after we had started so poorly meant they could defend from then and that was ideal for them because arguably they had six centre halves on the pitch.”
Rochdale set about righting the wrongs of their awful beginning but they found themselves up against a Bury side playing with passion, belief and a willingness to apply pressure on the man in possession at every opportunity. In the first half at least, they seemed the only team aware that this was a derby.
Half chances came and went for the home side to get back into the game before the break but few of them resulted in Bury keeper Jim Provett being called into action.
The keeper gathered Glenn Murray’s header at the second attempt and his defence saved him when he got caught in no man’s land from a Dale corner and Rory McArdle headed goalwards. A goalmouth scramble ensued before Adam Rundle’s shot was blocked out for another corner.
Murray came closest to halving Dale’s arrears before the break when his early left foot shot from Rundle’s low cross travelled narrowly wide of the upright. His strike partner Le Fondre also went close when his acrobatic effort sailed inches past the post.
Bury were not without their chances on the break, in the first half as well as the second. The game could have been over with a full half to play had Mangan not been caught offside after Bury faced a two on one situation when David Perkins gave the ball away.
The second half brought improvements from the home side, aided by a double substitution that saw wingers Rundle and Ben Muirhead taken off in place of Rory Prendergast and Kallum Higginbotham.
Bury’s task was clear, defend their lead at all costs but a goal seemed to be coming long before it arrived for Rochdale. Murray had more time than to nudge wide a John Doolan diagonal cross before Dave Challinor rescued Bury by hooking Le Fondre’s flicked header off the line.
A sense of expectancy grew amongst the Dale fans the more Dale pushed on and Provett had to be at his best to turn Kelvin Lomax’s blistering 25 yard drive away for a corner. A minute later and a full 24 yards further up the field, Murray failed to connect with a Prendergast cross when only a touch was needed.
The Bury defence finally buckled when Tom Kennedy’s right footed cross was headed home by McArdle. The goal meant it was game on and Dale’s pressure suggested that the Bury defence were in for a torrid time of things for the remaining half hour.
However the onslaught never truly gathered pace. Dale dominated the possession high up the pitch but their slick passing football was played largely in front of a deep lying Bury and they always fell one pass short of creating a clear opening.
They came closest when a far post Doolan cross found Le Fondre unmarked but the pass lacked pace and the Dale striker could only guide his header straight at Provett from six yards out.
For all of the home side’s dominance, Bury had better chances to seal the win than Rochdale did to rescue a point. Bury sub Glynn Hurst’s first touch of the game was to lob the ball over the bar having been sent clear and later Nicky Adams chose to be selfish and chip over as well, ignoring the two colleagues he had for company.
The final chance of the afternoon fell to the home side to earn a point but not for the first time in the game there was no-one to capitalise when Le Fondre fired a low ball across the six yard box. It was the story of the afternoon for Dale, a slice of misfortune coupled with a failure to do anything from decent opportunities.
Attendance: 4,692
Rochdale: Spencer, Lomax, Perkins, McArdle, Kennedy, Doolan, Jones, Muirhead (Higginbotham 46), Rundle (Prendergast 46), Murray, Le Fondre.
Subs not used: Russell, Thompson, Holness.
Booked: Doolan.
Bury: Provett, Morgan, Scott, Challinor, Futcher, Bullock, Adams (Baker 90), Bishop (Hurst 66), Mangan (Buchanan 81), Woodthorpe, Haslam.
Subs not used: Barry-Murphy, Parrish.
Booked: Futcher, Bishop.
Attempts (on target): Rochdale 13 (5) Bury 7 (2)
Freekicks: Rochdale 13 Bury 14
Offside: Rochdale 5 Bury 5
Corners: Rochdale 10 Bury 4
Referee: M Pike
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