Murray’s derby day delight

Bury 0
Rochdale 1 (Murray 74)

Rochdale secured local bragging rights after a win over neighbours Bury. A scrappy affair was decided midway through the second half when Glenn Murray was on hand to turn in Alan Goodall’s parried shot. The visitors were able to see out the win fairly comfortably after Bury were reduced to ten men when defender Darren Kempson was sent off for picking up two yellow cards.

Large parts of the game made for extremely difficult viewing with both defences trying to out-do each in other in the aimless long ball stakes whilst the midfielders headed the ball around between themselves; decent football was hard to come by and goal scoring opportunities even more so.

Rochdale took one of the few chances on offer and moved within four points of the playoff zone, whilst Bury continue to look anxiously over their shoulders at the opposite end of the table.

Rochdale’s goal came against the run of play after Bury had enjoyed a bright fifteen-minute spell with substitute Marc Pugh injecting some life into an attack that had been growing stale. Rochdale had to weather something of a storm at the start of the second half with Matthew Gilks having to turn Andy Bishop’s low shot round the post and John Doolan had to rescue his goalkeeper by hooking the ball of the line after a far post Pugh corner caused the Dale defence problems.

Pugh proceeded to cause more problems than the man he replaced, William Mocquet, the winger who played a large part in Dale’s revival under Keith Hill when he spent three months on loan at Spotland. The final chance of Bury’s surge came when Pugh hit another deep cross but David Buchanan chose to chest the ball down and steady himself rather than head at goal and the Dale defence was able to clear the ball for a corner.

Then came Murray’s winner as Rochdale emerged in tact from the spell of pressure and sought to exert some of their own. It immediately bore fruit as Alan Goodall paraded all too easily into the Bury box, past Pugh and Paul Scott who did not even consider challenging him. The Dale left back hit a rasping drive across goal that Andy Warrington to could only parry in the Bury goal and Murray was on hand at the back post to tap in.

The goal angered Bury and as Dale pushed for a second an off the ball incident involving Kempson and Murray was spotted by the assistant referee. The linesman flagged for a free kick for a foul on Murray and in the ensuing flare-up Kempson shoved Murray to the ground. After a lengthy discussion with the linesman, referee Colin Webster issued two yellow cards to Kempson, the first for the original incident and the second for the push, and a red quickly followed.

Rochdale substitute Danny Reet was booked for his involvement in the fracas and in a heated last ten minutes there were some afters between him and Bury captain Dave Challinor in which, at one point, Reet was left holding his head after Challinor appeared to throw a punch that the referee did not see but Challinor was booked following another discussion between the referee and the linesman. Challinor and Reet continued their frank exchange of views after the final whistle.

The extra space in the Bury back line brought chances for the visitors to rubber-stamp their win. A post denied Murray after his low shot had Warrington beaten after the goal scorer had turned superbly past two of the remaining Bury defenders on the edge of the area. Reet’s speculative drive from twenty-five yards also had the keeper struggling but that flew inches wide.

The sending off had made it much easier for Rochdale to see out the victory but Bury could have secured a point in their relegation fight when Jason Kennedy missed a golden opportunity in the final minute. He latched onto the loose ball that resulted from Mark Jackson’s defensive header under pressure from Bishop, only to side foot the ball well wide from twelve yards.

The first half had seen Rochdale have plenty of the possession but Bury had had the better chances. There were strong shouts for a penalty when the ball bounced up and seemed to strike the hand of Dale defender Simon Ramsden, following Bishop’s flick on into the box; Glynn Hurst eventually fired in a shot after the referee had waived away the appeals but it went comfortably wide of Gilks’ goal.

Minutes later and Bishop missed Bury’s best chance of the afternoon after he managed to escape his marker Rory McArdle for the only time in the game. Hurst sent over a pinpoint cross and Bishop was faced with a free header from eight yards but his looping header came back off the crossbar.

Man of the match – Rory McArdle – Aerially superb and solid in the tackle, McArdle silenced what was on paper a threatening Bury attack in Bishop and Hurst. The Northern Ireland under-21 international read the game superbly and his only real error was not punished when Bishop hit the bar instead of the back of the net.

Attendance: 5,075

Bury: Warrington, Scott, Challinor, Kempson, Woodthorpe, J. Kennedy, Mocquet (Pugh 62), Baker, Buchanan, Hurst, Bishop.
Subs not used: T. Kennedy, Fitzgerald, Youngs, Stephens.

Booked: Scott, Kempson, Challinor.

Sent Off: Kempson.

Rochdale: Gilks, Ramsden, Crooks (Jackson 38), McArdle, Goodall, Muirhead (Reet 69), Perkins, Doolan, Rundle, Murray, Dagnall (Poole 77).
Subs not used: Rigby, Dodds.

Booked: Perkins, Jackson, Reet.

Attempts (on target): Bury 9 (5) Rochdale 9 (7)
Free kicks: Bury 20 Rochdale 17
Offside: Bury 2 Rochdale 2
Corners: Bury 4 Rochdale 4

Referee: C Webster.