Grimsby Town 0 Rochdale 2 (Rundle 24, O'Grady 85)

Photo: Jon Coluccio

Rundle wheels away after scoring his first goal of the season.

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Rochdale moved into the automatic promotion places in League Two after carving out a win at lowly Grimsby. The home side put up a spirited fight after falling behind to Adam Rundle's goal midway through the first half but somehow they could not force an equaliser and Chris O'Grady, with the aid of a couple of deflections, made the three points safe with five minutes to go. It may have been harsh on the home side but Dale defended manfully and took their chances for a snatch and grab raid on the East coast.

Adam Rundle, brought in from the cold and into the Rochdale starting line-up for the first time in a league game since August, gave his side the lead. The winger latched onto Chris Dagnall's flick on and finished convincingly, putting two defenders on the wrong foot before side footing home.

Before the break, Dale had chances to double their lead through Dagnall, O'Grady and Simon Whaley, before they survived a late onslaught from a Grimsby side that seemed determined not to suffer a fourth successive defeat.

The visitors made a bright start but it was the home side that created the first chance of the afternoon and Adrian Forbes should have done a lot better with it. Josh Magennis made space on the right to cut the ball back for the winger, who got his finish horribly wrong, skewing the ball over the top.

Dale responded with some pressure of their own and began to ask the Grimsby backline some serious questions. Chris Dagnall and Gary Jones probed in and around the home side's penalty area but they couldn't get a clean break and in the end all Dale had to show for their decent spell was a Jones shot well wide.

The exchanges of pressure continued as Grimsby won a couple of corners and then Dale should have done better as Simon Whaley beat the offside trap and burst clear. An early cross might have found Dagnall but the Norwich winger turned back inside and fired his shot at a covering defender.

The home side's offside trap was not to be let off a second time. Dagnall flicked on Rory McArdle's cross and Rundle was clear. The winger, returning to the Dale side after a lengthy absence, took the goal superbly, sending defenders this way and that before a calm low finish.

Grimsby survived another major scare as Rundle threaded the ball through for Dagnall but the on-form striker slipped at the crucial moment just as he looked to double Dale's advantage.

Having overcome the adversity for the loss of just one goal, Grimsby kicked on through the lively Jean Louis Akpro, who twice tested Kenny Arthur with a shot from range and then low square ball into the danger area that the Dale keeper did well to gather.

It was chances at either end throughout the opening half but the visitors certainly had the better of them and they came within a whisker of doubling their lead after a fine move. Dagnall chested Rundle's cross into O'Grady's path and the striker's first time shot whistled just past the post and hit the stanchion behind the goal.

Nick Colgan in the Grimsby goal kept his side in it just before half time as the backline was caught flat yet again. Dagnall released Whaley, who drove at goal before Colgan nicked the ball off the end of the winger's toe.

Dale survived a spell of intense pressure right at the end of the half as the Dale defenders flung their bodies at anything that moved in the box to keep their side ahead. Last ditch blocks and headers flew in and then Forbes finished the half as he began it, shanking a shot horribly when perfectly placed to find a leveller for a home side who ended the opening period rampantly. 

Grimsby picked up where they left off at the start of the second half but so did the Dale defence as McArdle flung himself at the ball to block Paul Linwood's back post strike. Somehow Dale were surviving. Rundle was next to find himself in the right place at the right time to clear Dale's lines, hooking Magennis' header off the line, before Peter Sweeney glanced another header just past the post.

Keith Hill responded to the fact that Dale were losing their way by replacing Jones, their skipper, with Dale Stevens and the Dale boss pleaded with his players to hold onto the football better than they were doing. Still Grimsby pressed and Peter Bore's wonderfully whipped cross was crying out for a touch from somebody, anybody, but no-one bothered to attack the ball, such is the way when a side is struggling towards the foot of the table.

Finally Dale gave their defence some respite with a couple of chances in quick succession. Rundle latched onto Dagnall's knock round the corner of a defender and looked to double his tally. Rundle cut back on his weaker right foot and his shot was straight at Colgan. A minute later Dagnall burst into acres of space in front of the Grimsby defence but blazed his shot over the top.

The game entered a quiet phase before Grimsby pushed on again. Still Dale survived as Magnessis snatched a shot over the top after Akpro had outmuscled Tom Kennedy deep inside the Dale box. It couldn't have been much more tense for the 478 travelling Rochdale fans but all that pressure was relieved when O'Grady, latching onto Joe Thompson's cut back, aimed at goal, the ball took at least one, maybe two deflections before burying itself beyond Colgan, leaving O'Grady to claim a fourth goal for the club. For the first time in the afternoon Dale were guaranteed the three points.

Attendance: 3754.

Grimsby: Colgan, Bore, Wood, Bennett, Linwood, Shahin, Sweeney, Mendy, Forbes (Clarke 74), Magennis, Akpro.
Subs (not used): Overton, Heywood, Normington, Jones, Leary, North.

Booked: Wood, Bore.

Rochdale: Arthur, Holness, T. Kennedy, McArdle, Dawson, Jones (Stevens 60), J. Kennedy, Rundle (Thompson 80), Whaley, O'Grady, Dagnall (Magna 87).
Subs (not used): Taberner, Flynn, Manga, Spencer, Brown.

Attempts (on target): Grimsby 12 (4) Rochdale 10 (4)
Free kicks: Grimsby 14 Rochdale 13
Offside: Grimsby 0 Rochdale 4
Corners: Grimsby 8 Rochdale 3

Referee: J. Moss.