Rochdale 3-2 Oldham Athletic

Rochdale gave their survival hopes a real boost by edging a 5 goal thriller at Spotland against near neighbours Oldham. Michael Symes opened his Dale account with his first career hat-trick to lift Coleman’s men off the bottom of League One. Both sides had late goals ruled out whilst Latics’ James Tarkowski saw red in the 6th minute of stoppage time for a second booking.

John Coleman shuffled his pack a little making 2 changes from last weekend. New loan signing from Bolton Temitope Obadeyi  and Ashley Grimes started, Joe Widdowson and Brian Barry-Murphy missed out.

Oldham’s pre-match routine was turned upside down when midfielder Filipe Morais was involved in a car crash as he arrived at Boundary Park to board the bus bound for Spotland. The former Portugese U21 International is suffering severe concussion and has been kept in overnight at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

It was Dale that started on the front foot and within the opening 3 minutes took the lead. Dean Holden’s centre was headed up in the air by M’Voto  and the ball dropped to Symes who volleyed beyond Cisak and off the far post.

It was the start that Dale were looking for in what had been described as a must win game.

Paul Dickov’s men responded well and could have levelled 3 minutes later but M’Voto’s free header was off target.

It was real end to end stuff and played at a high tempo as you would expect in a local derby. Symes headed over from a Tutte cross whilst the former City man Tutte fired weakly at Cisak moments later.

David Mellor went close for the Latics with a 20 yard free kick but 7 minutes later and the visitors were level in spectacular style. A long punt upfield was headed clear by the Dale defence and with seemingly no danger, Shefki Kuqi volleyed the ball towards goal from 40 yards and it sailed over Lucas and into the net.

A big talking point came just before the half hour mark. Symes appeared to handle the ball inside his own area but referee Salisbury signalled play on; much to the disgust of the 1200 travelling supporters and Oldham management team.

Jason Kennedy thought he had restored Dale’s lead but his volley was superbly tipped over to avoid a certain goal.

Coleman’s men started the second half just has they had the first and re-established their lead 2 minutes in. Firstly good work down the right by Obadeyi made space for Tutte to fire at goal but Cisak pushed over. From the corner Dale scored. A short corner to Jones was pushed back to Kennedy who took 2 defenders out of the equation with a deft back heel to Tutte. The midfielder pulled the ball back into the area and it found Symes who slammed home from 8 yards.

The game became quite scrappy for 20 minutes but the home side extended their lead on 70 minutes. Kennedy stole the ball off Adeyemi just inside the Latics half and headed for goal. With screams of shoot being aimed at the former Middlesborough man, Kennedy played in Symes who was pulled down inside the area. Usual penalty taker Gary Jones offered the ball to Symes who duly dispatched the spot kick to complete his hat-trick.

The 2 goal advantage was reduced by visiting substitute Reuben Reid. The former Dale player swept home from 18 yards to really set up the last 15 minutes.

Obadeyi forced a smart save from Cisak with a powerful shot whilst Dale sub Jean Louis Akpa-Akpro thought he had scored with a wicked shot but the assistant ruled the Frenchman had used his hand to control the ball.

Referee Salisbury signalled 6 minutes of added time which lifted the travelling fans and it was the turn of Dickov’s men to think they had snatched a late equaliser. Rueben Reid forced a terrific save from Lucas whilst Taylor saw his shot parried by Lucas but as Adeyemi headed home from close range, his celebrations were cut short by an assistant’s flag.

The final drama came right at the end of the 6 minutes when James Tarkowski was shown a second yellow for hauling down Akpa-Akpro to end a miserable derby day for Latics.

John Coleman was obviously delighted afterwards: “I think we deserved to win it. It must have been a fantastic spectacle and our fans will have enjoyed it more so as we have won. As a manager you don’t really enjoy those games. It’s everything you want out of a football match but I would rather it be a dour 1-0 win. We scored some really good goals; there were some fantastic saves from the keepers. The players have to take full credit as they have taken on board what we have said to them and we have won the game. That was the Michael Symes we wanted to sign. Even if you take his goals out of the game he had a good performance but I thought (Andrew) Tutte was our man-of-the-match.”


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Rochdale: Lucas, Jordan ( P Edwards 75), Long, Holden, Darby, Jones (C), Obadeyi (Barry-Murphy 86), Kennedy, Grimes (Akpa-Akpro 63) Tutte, Symes

Subs (not used): M Edwards, Adams

Oldham: Cisak, M’Voto, Brown, Adeyemi, Tarkowski, Taylor, Lee, M’Changama (Winchester 80), Mellor (Hughes 67), Kuqi, Bunn (Reid 67)

Subs (not used): Bouzaniz, Millar

Referee: Mr G Salisbury
Ass Referee:    Mr P Gooch
Mr D Plowright
4th Official:    Mr G Stott