Gilks’ great goalkeeping leaves Gulls gutted

Rochdale 2 (Murray 19, Le Fondre 90 pen)
Torquay United 0

Rochdale followers will know only too well that when your luck is out it is really out. In the opening month of this season Rochdale could not buy a goal, never mind a win, and their second game of the season at Torquay epitomised their early form; missed chances punished in the final stages by a cruel winner for the opposition. On Tuesday night at Spotland, the boot was truly on the other foot as Dale escaped with the three points after the League’s bottom side had caused enough problems to have at least earned themselves a much needed draw in what looks an increasingly desperate fight for survival.

Torquay, with nothing to lose given the plight of their much liked club, should have caught the home side on their heels but a combination of superb goalkeeping from Matthew Gilks and particularly woeful finishing prevented the south coast side from giving their 60 or so travelling supporters at least a draw to take the long distance home with them.

The visitors played some football that was at odds with their league position but if there was one defining moment that summed up the direction in which the Gulls’ season is headed, it came midway through the second half when Matt Hockley missed an open net from four yards out. Indeed, therein lies another comparison to when the two sides last met in August, when former Dale striker Iyseden Christie missed a chance from practically underneath the crossbar. “The only complaints I can have is with the finishing, I can not have any complaints about the performance”, said their manager, Colin Lee.

Given that the Rochdale manager does not believe in luck, Keith Hill’s team deserved their win but both managers attested to the fact that it was not by Dale’s being much better than their opposition , as they undoubtedly have been in their other recent victories, but the superior goalkeeping of Gilks compared with the inferior finishing of the Torquay frontline. Hill said: “We did not get frustrated and we got the goal but there is no doubt it was the clean sheet that won it for us. Matthew Gilks is up there with the best in the league and we know that he is more than capable of making the kind of saves he has tonight.”

There was nothing fortunate about Dale’s opener when the constant thorn in Torquay’s side that was Dale winger Ben Muirhead whipped in a superb cross that was crying out to be planted into the corner by the head of Glenn Murray; Murray gratefully obliged having earlier squandered a one-on-one with the excellent visiting keeper Kevin Miller.

The goal did however come much against the run of play after a poor, nervous looking start for the home side with passing and ball control consistently letting the Dale players down. Lee Thorpe should have scored for the visitors but was well denied by the advancing Gilks and Lloyd Kerry drilled inches past the post in an opening period that did nothing to conform to the two sides’ respective places near the top and bottom of the League Two form table.

But, if ever a goal became a catalyst for a vast improvement in a team’s football then Murray’s header was just the tonic Dale needed to push on and put the sword into a club that seems to be dying by the week. Miller alone kept the arrears down with a series of fine saves, Muirhead raced onto one of Gary Jones’ numerous good through balls, but his low drive was stopped by Miller’s legs, and in the dying seconds he raced off his line to deny Adam Le Fondre’s attempted lob.

The assault on the Torquay goal had not brought the second, a goal that was much needed given the fact that the visitors had looked more than capable of getting themselves on level terms and the first half signs had shown that they would need an in-form Gilks to keep them in the game, and the Dale keeper showed no signs of letting his side down.

During Dale’s recent run of form Gilks has seldom been the centre of attention thanks to high scoring and excellent defending by Rory McArdle and Nathan Stanton but Gilks was the certainly the main attraction in their latest victory. The home keeper got his eye in during the first half when he superbly tipped Kerry’s shot round the post after seeing the ball late and this was followed up by what can only be described as a truly world class stop early in the second, when he dived full length and tipped Paul Smith’s header onto the crossbar from virtually underneath it.

The home side endured a difficult start to the second half, with captain Gary Jones having to be taken from the field on a stretcher with a suspected knee problem that may keep him out of action for some time, whilst the visitors squandered more chances to get back into things; culminating in Lee Thorpe and Hockley contriving to miss the simplest of them. Thorpe hit the post from a free header and Hockley’s open net miss from the rebound brought cries of laughter and relief from the Dale fans behind the goal.

The visitors had had their chances and had not taken them and Rochdale managed not to offer them any in the remaining fifteen minutes by controlling the play in a way they had not managed all game and as time ran out the referee threw some wholly unnecessary salt into some already painful Torquay wounds when he decided that the last kick of the match would be a Rochdale penalty. Unnecessary because, such was the lack of time on the clock, that Torquay did not have time to equalise regardless of the penalty decision, and not least, because the decision to award a spot-kick against Lee Mansell for a foul on Glenn Murray looked to be incorrect an one; none of which concerned Adam Le Fondre as he despatched the penalty.

Man of the Match – Matthew Gilks – Although Ben Muirhead was certainly the pick of the outfield players as he attacked Torquay at pace and at will, Gilks earned his side the points with two fine saves either side of half time; the one from Smith’s header was undoubtedly the save the season.

Attendance: 2,456

Rochdale: Gilks, Brown, Stanton, McArdle, Goodall, Muirhead, Jones (Perkins 51), Doolan, Prendergast (Rundle 53), Murray, Le Fondre.

Subs not used: Edge, Crooks, Dodds.

Torquay: Miller, Halliday (Hockley 46), Angus, Gordon, Andrews, Kerry (McPhee 79), Smith (Hill 65), Mansell, Robinson, Easter, Thorpe.

Subs not used: Horsell, Cooke.

Booked: Robinson, Easter, Hill, Miller, Mansell.

Attempts (on target): Rochdale 13 (8) Torquay 10 (7)
Free kicks: Rochdale 23 Torquay 14
Offside: Rochdale 3 Torquay 3
Corners: Rochdale 7 Torquay 7

Referee: M Jones.