Hero Stanton is not popular in Notts

Notts County 1 (Lee 53)
Rochdale 2 (Murray 80, Muirhead 83)

Having gone a goal behind early in the second half, Rochdale came back to claim victory with two goals in ninety seconds. Nathan Stanton was the hero for Dale with an exemplary defensive display against physical Notts strikers Jason Lee and Lawrie Dudfield, but home fans were less complimentary about the Dale centre half after ongoing confrontations with Dudfield reached a climax when the Notts fans seemed to think Stanton had lashed out at the forward.

Banter between Stanton and County fans continued throughout the second half, with the fans becoming increasingly frustrated at Stanton’s actions and not least at their own team as they went 2-1 down with home goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington dropping a clanger for the second goal. Stanton was more than happy to show his delight to fans and this resulted in a nasty looking scene by the tunnel as the Dale players left the pitch, whilst it had been reported that one angry fan on the opposite side had thrown a knife in Stanton’s direction.

The game had been a fractious affair throughout with the two County forwards battling it out, sometimes literally, with the Dale defenders Stanton and Rory McArdle. Both County players could have been sent for an early bath in the first half, the pair were booked, Dudfield for making exaggerated elbow signs towards the referee and might not have been joining in the second half when he was late on Ben Muirhead right on half time, whilst Lee received just a yellow card for what looked to be an elbow on McArdle.

It looked as though the home strikers would have the last laugh when Lee opened the scoring early in the second half, meeting Jay Smith’s free kick with a trademark header. The visitors were struggling to impose themselves on the second half, failing to find the fluidity of the first and doing nothing to test Pilkington. But like the home fans, Lee’s joy turned to frustration when Murray nodded in Adam Rundle’s corner and then the home keeper, in attempting to catch Murray’s deflected shot and prevent a corner, only managed to dive and palm the ball back into play, Muirhead collected it and a combination of he and Notts defender Mike Edwards forced it over the line.

Lee let his frustration show as his side’s playoff hopes suffered a setback but he remained to trudge off the field with his team mates at the final whistle. He was fortunate that none of the officials saw a further attack on Rory McArdle and he fouled Dale keeper Gilks as he caught the ball in the dying seconds.

Rochdale had played the better first half football but Glenn Murray failed to turn this into goals for his side. He volleyed Muirhead’s near post cross inches past the post and then squandered the best chance of the half when he latched onto a long ball and beat the offside trap but shot straight at Pilkington.

Lee did similar for County, firing straight at Gilks, Notts having broken after Dale lost the ball cheaply in the middle of the poor Meadow Lane pitch. Gilks faced more of a test from Andy Parkinson’s flicked header that the Dale stopper did well to turn away and Mike Edwards volleyed over after a cleverly worked free kick.

Man of the Match – Nathan Stanton – The only impact a ferocious home crowd had on Stanton was in the nature of his celebrations at Dale’s victory. With his pace and combative style, and with the help of defensive partner Rory McArdle, he kept the physical threat of Dudfield and Lee to a minimum and every single fan in the away end was chanting his name at the end. Stanton has hardly had a bad game for the club and is no doubt the favourite at this stage to win the player of the season award.

Attendance: 4,493

Notts County: Pilkington, Silk, Edwards, Hunt (Martin 82), McCann, Pipe, Somner (White 56), Smith, Parkinson (Mendes 84), Lee, Dudfield.

Subs not used: Deeney, Ross.

Booked: Dudfield, Lee, Silk.

Rochdale: Gilks, Ramsden (Perkins 90), Stanton, McArdle, Goodall, Muirhead, Doolan, Jones, Prendergast (Rundle 64), Le Fondre, Murray.

Subs not used: Edge, Thompson, Crooks.

Booked: Le Fondre

Attempts (on target): Notts County 8 (3) Rochdale 9 (6)
Free kicks: Notts County 15 Rochdale 18
Offside: Notts County 3 Rochdale 7
Corners: Notts County 3 Rochdale 8

Referee: E Ilderton