Nationwide Division Three

DALE brought the curtain down on a disappointing season with a defeat at the Kassam Stadium.

Considering many of those on show are out of contract this summer, the lack of effort and application shown beggared belief.

On this evidence there will be a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing at Spotland before the new campaign gets underway in August.

The two main culprits were youngsters Townson and McCourt.

The former spent more time on his backside than his feet and clearly can't work out the offside rule, while his enigmatic team-mate looked listless and failed to beat a man all afternoon.

Townson lasted until half-time, while McCourt was dragged off with 17 minutes left. They were lucky to have lasted that long.

Steve Parkin shuffled his pack as expected for the final game. Matt Gilks replaced Neil Edwards in goal, while Rory Patterson was paired with Townson in a 4-4-2 formation.

Neil Redfearn dropped out for McCourt while Danny Livesey returned for a final time in defence before heading back to Bolton.

Dale were the first to threaten when Leo Bertos got a sight of goal and drew a save from Simon Cox from 20 yards. Wayne Evans then cleared the danger at the other end as Julian Alsop and Steve Basham threatened.

McCourt's one meaningful contribution came on eight minutes when Gary Jones' cross from the right found him at the far post but he headed wide.

Basham drew a smart stop from Gilks on 20 minutes, but left the young keeper with no chance when he raced onto an Alsop flick-on and fired home a left-foot drive just after the half-hour mark.

Rochdale simply couldn't keep hold of the ball long enough to string a move together. Their only apparent option was to hoof is long downfield - meat and drink for powerful centre-half pairing Andy Crosby and Paul McCarthy.

The second goal arrived five minutes before the break and saw Gilks make a mess of things.

Danny Brown's curling centre picked out Whitehead - by far the best on show - and his header beat the Dale's stopper's flap to nestle into the net.

Parkin threw on Lee McEvilly for Townson at the restart and immediately Dale had more purpose. Evans nearly picked out Patterson's run and McEvilly was inches away from stealing a pass from the grasp of Cox.

Whitehead headed wide and Alsop was off target from distance as the U's started to boss the match once more, but it was the Dale fans who were shrieking for a penalty after McEvilly's run had been crudely ended by Crosby.

The match meandered into the final 10 minutes before Dale showed any interest. Jones played in McEvilly whose shot was saved by Cox's feet before the big striker headed over Evans' inviting centre.

Sean McClare - on for McCourt - cleared off the line from United sub Jefferson Louis before fellow replacement Tom Winter drew a superb stop for Gilks.

The whistle, when it came, was welcome relief. This simply wasn't good enough for the Dale supporters who had made the trip and plenty of noise.

Teams

ROCHDALE: M Gilks, W Evans, D Livesey, D Burgess, S Smith, L Bertos, G Jones, S Warner (M Doughty, 79), P McCourt (S McClare, 67), K Townson (L McEvilly, 46), R Patterson. Subs not used: N Edwards, K Gibbins.

Man of the match: Daryl Burgess - Neat and tidy under pressure in an underperforming side.

OXFORD: S Cox, S McNivern, A Crosby, P McCarthy, M Bound (L Steele, 46), D Whitehead, B Quinn, J Hunt, D Brown, J Alsop (J Louis, 83), S Basham (T Winters, 64). Subs not used: P Wanless, D Waterman.

Attendance: 5,134.

Referee: Barry Knight (Kent).

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