ROCHDALE secured their third division status for another season in a game brought to life by controversial refereeing decisions.

The visitors took the lead on 48 minutes when Dale keeper Neil Edwards was adjudged to have collected the ball behind his goal-line by a linesman who was clearly not up with play and to even things up referee Prosser gave the home side a penalty that never was ten minutes later and after it had been saved skipper Gary Jones turned home the rebound to spark wild celebrations among the Spotland faithful.

Manager Steve Parkin admitted: "It is just a massive relief. I've watched Southend twice and they are a good side with some good players. I thought it would be sticky for us and the players played in a similar way to the way they did against Macclesfield - they were very nervous and I was grateful to the likes of Greg Heald at the back who kept us strong. It wasn't good but it was good enough to keep us in the League and that is all that matters.

The thing that upset us most about Southend's goal was that the linesman was so confident in his decision when in fact he was nowhere near the goal-line. In honesty we found out afterwards that it probably did go in but whether or not it did is irrelevant because the linesman wasn't in a position to judge it properly. As to the penalty nine out of ten times you wouldn't see it given so the officials probably evened things out and I was very grateful for the final whistle."

The first half was a complete non-event with neither side managing a decent effort on goal but early in the second half Dale were grateful for an excellent save by Neil Edwards after his defenders had made a complete hash of clearing their lines and Mark Bentley was left with a shooting opportunity.

The reprieve did not last long as within a minute Southend leading scorer Leon Constantine fired in a dipping effort that Edwards spilled and in recovering the ball was adjudged to have crossed the line.

Falling behind brought Dale to life and twice in a minute they went close to equalising. Southend keeper Darryl Flahavan did well to tip over a Neil Redfearn free kick and from the subsequent corner Gareth Griffiths saw his header deflected wide.

Clearly aware of the controversial nature of Southend's goal referee Prosser got himself back into the good books of the home fans when he penalised defender Nick Nicolau when the defender could not get out of the way of a Leo Bertos cross. After the arguments had died down skipper Gary Jones saw his rather weak penalty saved by the visiting keeper but reacted first to stab the rebound home.

In the closing stages with news filtering through that Carlisle were not winning and that Dale were therefore safe they could have wrapped all three points but substitutes Rory Patterson and Patrick McCourt were both denied by Flahavan. Tweet