Poor penalties shadow improvement

Rochdale 1-1 Crewe Alexandra (Crewe win 2-0 on penalties)

Steve Parkin was desperate for his side’s home form to improve after the weekend’s collapse to Stockport and to some extent his players responded by matching, and for long periods outplaying, League One side Crewe in the Second Round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Rochdale deserved to cancel out Luke Varney’s first half opener and to take the tie to penalties; but the less said about their spot kicks the better.

It was hard to tell how seriously the visitors treated the fixture with manager Dario Gradi, the football league’s longest serving manager, implying after the game that if the tie had gone to extra time rather than straight to penalties after the full time whistle, his side would rather have scored an own goal than partake in an extra thirty minutes. For Steve Parkin every home game has become a chance to improve upon Rochdale’s solitary Spotland win this campaign; no game can be taken lightly.

In the end, however, the negatives of the evening outweighed the improvement in Rochdale’s performance. With what is arguably the biggest game of his side’s season on the horizon with Saturday’s visit of Bury to Spotland, Parkin watched helplessly from the sidelines as John Doolan tore his hamstring and Gary Brown was troubled by a reoccurrence of the knock that has kept him out for two weeks. Add to that the fact that James Sharp already looks set to miss the local derby and Nathan Stanton is suspended then Parkin will have more than a mild headache when it comes to team selection. Rather than choosing to divert from the unsuccessful 4-3-3 formation, he might well be forced to.

That said, Parkin’s front three had more joy against Crewe, thanks largely to the man of the match performance of Clive Moyo-Modise who made only his second start of the campaign; he will surely be in line for his third on Saturday based on this showing. Modise generates excitement like no other Rochdale player. When he picks up the ball the crowd collectively holds its breath with expectancy, waiting for a trick and a tremendous turn of pace. The problem, like the sum of his team’s parts, remains end product; in this game, Modise, like Rochdale, looked good everywhere on the pitch except in front of goal.

Throughout, Rochdale enjoyed plenty of time on the football but Crewe, displaying the typical mentality of most sides that visit Spotland, watched the home side play their nice patterns up to the Crewe box and then, more often than not, dealt with anything that might put their goal in danger. Limiting Rochdale to long range shots was of no concern to Crewe; Gary Jones and Alan Goodall managed to clear the stand from two such efforts, that in itself was some achievement.

Modise was on the end of Dale’s better chances. He was well met by Stuart Tomlinson in the Crewe goal when put through by Keith Barker and Barker was again the provider for the young striker as he fired just wide from the Blackburn loanee’s flick on.

At Spotland, Rochdale fans have been used to seeing their side enjoy possession, squander the odd half chance, and then see the visitors waltz up the other end and open the scoring with what is usually their first attempt. No surprise then when a long ball split the centre halves and Varney stole in and scored from a superbly calm lob over Matthew Gilks in the Dale goal. Varney had scored the much harder of two first half chances. He was earlier presented with a golden chance when a sleeping linesman failed to give him offside. The forward seemingly could not believe his luck and in his state of shock shot well wide of the target when it was easier to score.

Steve Parkin hoped that the napping linesman was not also a builder by trade, “I spoke to him just before the penalties were taken and he said that he was level. If that was level I would not want him building a wall for me.”

More good Rochdale football was the order of the second half only this time a Rochdale move found a cutting edge and they were back on level terms. It was a superb goal, spreading the play from right to left, Alan Goodall fed Ernie Cooksey who whipped in a first time left foot cross for Keith Barker to volley home on the turn.

Parkin was pleased for Barker as he notched his first Rochdale goal; “I am pleased for him because he was under pressure because he had not scored, but in general all the games he plays in the team he does well. He gets through a lot of work, holds the ball up, he just had not scored, now he has I am delighted for him.”

Rochdale dominated the remainder. Lifted by having finally finished one of their moves, more shots rained in on Tomlinson’s goal. Chris Dagnall whipped in hit two well struck left foot curlers having cut in from the right, both efforts shaving the left hand upright with the keeper beaten.

Modise was the focal point for Rochdale’s more fast paced attacks. As he enjoyed more space, he stretched his legs, skipping past Crewe legs at will and the crowd were warmed on the freezing cold Halloween night with Modise to entertain them. However, the youngster remains raw in front of goal and when he failed to convert Dagnall’s through ball from a tight angle, the game was destined for penalties.

For Rochdale the shootout was in keeping with the date of the fixture; a horror show. It started well when Gilks saved Ryan Lowe’s weak attempt but when Gary Jones’ shot was saved in similar fashion it set the tone for those proceeding him. Barker’s equally poor kick was saved, Goodall missed the target, and Mark Jackson hit another low weak penalty that Tomlinson kept out. Crewe went through having scored from their second and fourth attempts; Nick Maynard’s the highlight, smashing the ball into the top corner.

“It was very disappointing,” said Parkin. “The penalties were so good at Wrexham because they were positive. Tonight we tried to ‘feel’ them into the net instead of getting a foot behind them and striking them with pace.”

Despite that disappointment, it is unlikely that Rochdale will lose much collective sleep over the fact that they were knocked out of the tournament but they failed to win another home game despite a better performance. Saturday’s home game is massive, and a loss will bring insomnia. A depleted team will have to show continued improvement in front of goal to compete with an in form Bury side and Rochdale fans never take too kindly to being beaten by their neighbours, Parkin must let his side know that this one really does matter.