Dagnall Slays The Dragons

Wrexham 1 Rochdale 2

Rochdale forward Chris Dagnall grabbed his second brace in five days to give his side a consecutive away win; something that Steve Parkin’s men have not achieved since the first two away games of last season. Dale were full value for the victory against a Wrexham side that were previously unbeaten at home. The visitors dominated the first half but lacked any cutting edge and they found themselves a goal down at the break, but they opened up the home defence twice in the second half to seal victory and it was that man Dagnall who grabbed the headlines once more.

Gary Brown came into the side ahead of the game as Mark Jackson failed to recover from the injury that forced him to hobble off in Saturday’s win over Boston. Brown’s inclusion was somewhat a surprise; the small defender forcing his way into the side ahead of fellow full-back Simon Ramsden.

Brown was one of a few static Dale defenders who were on hand to see Wrexham open the scoring with ten minutes played. A harmless looking diagonal ball into the visitor’s box was not dealt with, allowing Chris Llewellyn the time to turn and fire a tame looking shot through the legs of goalkeeper Matthew Gilks and into the net.

The visitors should have levelled almost immediately as they began to get on top. Lee Crooks showed good initiative by taking a quick free kick from the edge of the box and his ball to the back post was perfect for Barker to head into the bottom corner. However, Wrexham goalkeeper Mike Ingham was able to save comfortably from Barker’s weak attempt and despite Rochdale's dominance it proved to be Ingham’s only real action of the first half.

The rest of the half revolved around some of the frankly comical decisions made by referee Steve Bratt. Thankfully for the visiting defence, Llewellyn was penalised despite the fact that he was blatantly shoved in the back by Nathan Stanton after the ball had bounced clear to Matt Crowell who would have only had one defender to beat.

Wrexham were on the end of another strange decision minutes later as Jones was booked for taking a dangerous free kick too quickly! As the referee was pacing out the yards, Jones whipped the ball to the back post, not too dissimilar to Crooks effort at the other end, only for the referee to penalise Jones for taking it when the official was not ready. Fortunately for Dale, Ferguson’s shot from the retake went high and wide.

Bratt then rounded off a hatrick of poor first half decisions when he denied the visitors a penalty for what looked to be a clear handball. Dale had men over at the far post and a deep cross was perfect for Gary Brown to volley. His well struck shot clearly struck the hand of Ryan Valentine and the ball rebounded from his arm onto that of Steve Evans; a double penalty claim but the Dale appeals were denied.

Dale found their cutting edge immediately in the second half and their first attack of the period brought the equaliser. It came about thanks to the sterling work of Rochdale skipper Gary Jones who made a powerful run at the heart of the Wrexham defence and once he had turned inside Valentine he had time to look up and pick out the unmarked Dagnall and he produced a calm side foot finish into the bottom corner.

Wrexham tried to rally after conceding the early equaliser but Gilks was only once tested when Jones fired in a snap shot from the edge of the box after John McAliskey had chested the ball down but the Dale keeper was able to gather at the second attempt.

Wrexham’s spell of pressure soon died down and attentions turned once more to Bratt’s refereeing. Following a further series of puzzling decisions, both the home and away fans joined forces to sing a humorous rendition of a song which implied that Bratt was perhaps in the wrong profession.

With the two sets of supporters still chuckling, the visitors took the lead. Crooks’ sideways pass found Goodall in plenty of space and the full back fired in a vicious twenty-five yard shot which zipped on the wet surface. Ingham could only parry and Dagnall raced in to score a true striker’s goal; firing the rebound into the roof of the net.

Numerous substitutions later and Rochdale had the chance to put both hands firmly on the three points. When Wrexham lost the ball in search of the equaliser the visitors broke and outnumbered the Welsh defence. Rochdale’s best player on the night, Jonh Doolan, who epitomised the work rate of his team mates from first minute to last, broke with the ball and found Dagnall on the overlap. Dagnall had a chance to claim the match ball but his shot across goal was too weak and Ingham stretched out an arm and saved comfortably.

The miss left Dale to cling on and it looked as though they might not manage it when Wrexham defender Evans rose to win a header at the back post. His cushioned header across goal found substitute Newby free at the far post but he couldn’t guide his diving header into the net from close range.

It was Wrexham’s only chance to get back into the game and Rochdale held out for the win; but not before a final act of folly from referee Bratt. With Rochdale ready to bring on Ernie Cooksey as the clock ticked down, both sets of players waited for the substitution to be made. Matthew Gilks was ready to take a goal kick but stopped so that the change could take place. The referee failed to spot Cooksey’s presence alongside the fourth official as he announced the amount of stoppage time, and Gilks was subsequently booked for time wasting; summing up a most perplexing refereeing display.

The win gave Rochdale a healthy boost away from the troublesome end of the League Two table. By all accounts it was a well deserved win against a Wrexham side that would have been in the play-off spots had they held on to their half time lead. Based on this display, a play-off berth would be a somewhat false position for the Welsh side.

Speaking after the game, Steve Parkin was full of admiration for his side’s industrious display. He said: “We set our stall out before the game and said we need to reproduce the enthusiasm and desire we had shown in the game at the weekend. We made sure that Wrexham did not play and John Doolan epitomised that in the first ten minutes with some excellent tackles and he took us up the field.

“The players put in tackles and played some cracking football and to win at Wrexham is a massive result for us.

“The supporters were terrific and they could see the players were giving everything they had.”

After two games on the road, Rochdale are back on home soil this Saturday when they will face a tough task to make it three wins in three games with the visit of in-form Shrewsbury Town to Spotland.