Prendergast strikes in another late show

On the ball - Rory Prendergast rescued a point for Rochdale

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Darlington 1 (Wright 59)
Rochdale 1 (Prendergast 88)

Rochdale’s season is finally on the tracks and appears ready to gather pace. They followed Saturday’s dramatic win at Shrewsbury with a well deserved point at another of League Two’s high flyers. Dale extended their unbeaten run to six matches when substitute Rory Prendergast struck in the 88th minute to cancel out Tommy Wright’s second half opener for Darlington.

A game of few clear cut chances saw Rochdale have the better of them but they found themselves trailing after being unable to register from any of their opportunities.

At times Darlington were dominant but wayward finishing meant that Dale keeper James Spencer was never tested until he had to retrieve the ball from the net with half an hour remaining. The fact that Darlington had 14 attempts on goal but only two found the target tells its own story with Rochdale’s makeshift defence dealing quite comfortably with the minor threats posed by the home side.

One of the two target finders brought their goal after veteran striker Julian Joachim, for one of the few times in the evening, found space away from David Perkins on the Darlington right and put over a superb back post cross for Tommy Wright to plant a bullet header beyond Spencer.

Incidentally the home side’s only other attempt to be aimed between Spencer’s posts was one that the Dale keeper gathered comfortably from a long range Neil Wainwright effort midway through the first half.

Although Rochdale had fewer shots that their opponents, home goalkeeper Andy Oakes was the far busier of the two. He made two superb parries in the first half to keep out long range volleys from Dale midfielders Gary Jones and Ben Muirhead.

Oakes was the centre of attention once more when Adam Le Fondre latched onto Muirhead’s pass to go clear of the Darlington defence. Oakes rushed to the edge of his area only for Le Fondre to reach the ball first, nudge it past the keeper and go over in the penalty area. Following a similar incident at Shrewsbury on Saturday, the Rochdale players were incensed when the referee booked Le Fondre for diving the same as the outcome from the weekend’s penalty claim.

Dale boss Keith Hill said: “I don’t know why Adam has picked up this tag as a diver. I don’t consider him to be a cheat. I’ve seen the DVD of Saturday’s game and it’s the worst non-penalty decision I’ve seen and we’ve had another one tonight. I don’t know whether this referee watched our game on Saturday but it looked another penalty to me. It’s a goal scoring opportunity for Adam so why would he dive? It’s a decision that could have changed the course of the game for us after a good first half and in the end we did well to salvage something from a losing situation.”

Earlier Glenn Murray’s current lack of confidence was displayed at its fullest after Le Fondre beat two defenders to skip into the box along the by-line and cut the ball back for his strike partner, only for Rochdale’s top-scorer of last season to completely miss his kick from eight yards out.

All Darlington to could muster were a couple of shots from the edge of the box with the Dale defence allowing them some space from which to shoot. Both Greg Blundell and Mickey Cummins had the time and space to hit the target, their efforts had Spencer beaten but both were wayward.

Both sides contributed some woeful football at the start of the second half before Darlington finally found their footing and found an opening goal that might well have been enough condemn a less mean spirited opposition.

But Rochdale are becoming the masters of the last ten minutes and a goal and a point were the least they deserved.

They hit back at Darlington immediately, although not before a free kick routine on the edge of the Darlington box went disastrously wrong. The ball was passed straight to a Darlington player and they broke the length of the pitch through Wainwright, who played in Wright, only for Tom Kennedy to block his shot and deny Darlington what would have been a farcical match sealer.

Keith Hill shook up his forward line with the introduction of Prendergast and Kallum Higginbotham and both made an impact. Higginbotham raced clear down the right and fed in a teasing low cross that had Steve Foster at sixes and sevens. He took out his own goalkeeper before crashing the ball off the underside of his own crossbar. The signs were there that the home side were feeling the pressure of unconvincing performance in front of an expectant home crowd.

It was all Dale by this point. Oakes made the save of the evening when he dived low across goal to keep out Le Fondre’s curled attempt and Alan White produced a last ditch tackle to deny Gary Jones as he danced into the Darlington box and shaped to shoot.

Dale were not to be denied and their goal came in some style and at the perfect time. Rory Prendergast, who spent the back end of last season on loan at Darlington, took one touch to nudge Murray’s flick into the box before firing an emphatic finish across Oakes and into the far corner of the net. It was time for more last gasp scenes of wild celebration from the Rochdale fans; they are beginning to get used to them.

Attendance: 3031

Darlington: Oakes, Ryan, White, Foster, Wainwright, Cummins, Keltie (Ravenhill 76), Purdie, Joachim, Blundell, Wright.
Subs not used: Miller, Wiseman, McBride, Brooks-Meade.

Booked: Foster.

Rochdale: Spencer, Lomax, Perkins, Kennedy, McArdle, Doolan, Muirhead (Higginbotham 64), Jones, Murray, Le Fondre, Rundle (Prendergast 64).
Subs not used: Russell, Thompson, Holness.

Booked: Le Fondre, Prendergast.

Attempts (on target): Darlington 14 (2) Rochdale 10 (6)
Freekicks: Darlington 20 Rochdale 16
Offside: Darlington 2 Rochdale 5
Corners: Darlington 4 Rochdale 8

Referee: C Boyeson