The View from the Stands - Rochdale vs Chester

A Rochdale fan and a Chester fan share their thoughts on Dale's first home league fixture of their Centenary season. Chester won the game with a last gasp winner, compounding Rochdale fan's misery after they had what looked like a legitimate goal ruled out for offside. Dale had taken the lead during a strong first half showing but Chester emerged much the better side after the break, with left winger Kevin Ellison setting up their equaliser and then hitting the winner in injury time.

Our Rochdale fan's view comes courtesy of Rochdale's unofficial website messageboard contributor 'oddjob007'.

"We should have wrapped it up in the first half, Chester weren't in it and we were all over them like a rash and should have finished it two or three nil.

In the second half, Chester must have had a rocket from their manager as they were a different side and caught us out. They battled hard and came out on top.

Taking our three main threats off was an error and I think ultimately lost us the game. The two wingers were running Chester ragged and Glenn Murray was needed badly up front against a big strong team, Chris Dagnall and Adam Le Fondre had no chance on their own. The two wingers that came on were not half as effective as the two that went off and Joe Thompson just looked out of his depth - at his age and with his inexperience, he should not have been put in the position where Keith Hill was looking for him to change the game.

Gary Jones was ok in the first half and solid but in the second half he was awful. I think dropping him in favour of Doolan will give him the required motivation.

I'm not worried because it is early days, we just have a few teething problems."

Our Chester fan's view comes from 'Crazy Badger', a Deva Chat messageboard user.

"I thought we looked very poor for the first 45 minutes, giving the ball away too easily and struggling to create anything up front. I don't know what Danby was doing with his punch for Rochdale's goal.

In the second half, Rochdale looked a different team and we started to get more into the game. Our first goal came from a nice move down the left with Ellison beating his man and getting a decent ball in, which came back to the edge of the box where Grant was waiting to slot coolly away.

We had a couple of other chances, with Butler going close from a Sandwith corner, and Holdroyd having a shot blocked, but the game looked over when Rochdale had it in the back of the net with only a few minutes to go, only for it to be ruled offside.

I don't think the Rochdale fans had got over the disallowed goal when a great ball through the middle set Ellison clear and he made no mistake with the shot.

I don't think anyone had a great game for Chester, but Butler was pretty solid at the back and Ellison looked the most dangerous up front so it's between them for man-of-the-match."

Rochdale fan Jordan Schofield gives his thoughts on the game:

"This was a game we didn't deserve to win although in the end we never deserved to lose. There were three main factors in our loss; we failed to kill Chester off in the first half, giving them time to re-group at half time, Keith Hill's subs were a mistake and left us even worse than we were, and defensive mistakes cost us two goals.

The first half we dominated in possession without too many clear cut chances but the ones we did create we should have finished and going in to half time 1-0 up, the fans were slightly disappointed.

In the second half Ellison ripped us apart on Chester's left and Ramsden was outpaced and struggled with Chester's main threat.

At 1-1 Chester looked the better side and Dale needed to make some subs. Hill opted to replace both wingers, which was a big mistake, especially to replace an inform Muirhead with an inexperienced Joe Thompson, who could not adjust to the standard of football and did not help out going forward. Neither did he help Simon Ramsden who was in desperate need of some defensive help against Ellison.

Overall the linesman cost us three points with a poor decision at the end but ultimately we threw away the one point that we had.

We now head to Hereford in a must win match."

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