The visitors’ bid to build momentum on the back of a derby win against Bury had been partly foiled by successive postponements, and Dale looked ring rusty on their return to action at Glanford Park last night. The result saw them drop to the bottom of the division as Chesterfield drew with Bury.
The game hinged on two opportunities during the opening stages of the second half.
Dale skipper Gary Jones burst through the centre and saw his shot parried by Iron goalkeeper Sam Slocombe into the path of Nicky Adams. His attempt to force the loose ball into the net from close range was foiled by Sam Togwell on the goalline.
The disappointment of that miss was compounded soon after when the decisive strike from Thompson lit up a contest desperately short on quality. He cut in-field from the right and launched an unstoppable rising drive which slammed into the top corner of Kurucz’s net.
Bell sounds optimistic over Dale’s return to action
Postponement was Coleman’s first disappointment
“I didn’t think there was anything in the game,” said Coleman. “There were two opportunities in the game. Nicky Adams had one were the goalkeeper has spilt it and Nicky feels he should score, while their lad has hit a worldy into the top corner. A draw would have been a fair result.”
Both sides struggled to settle into the game during a scrappy first half devoid of goalscoring opportunities. Jon Parkin posed a physical presence up front for the hosts, but the Dale defence coped with his muscular approach, though Coleman felt they deserved some assistance from referee Robert Madley.
“There were positives from the performance, and I felt our defence played very well,” aid Coleman.
Michael Symes, a recent loan signing from Bournemouth, made his Dale debut after the interval but was unable to turn the game Dale’s way – he will be looking to make a bigger impact in Dale’s remaining games.
Rochdale: Kurucz 7, Darby 7, Long 7, Amankwaah 7, Widdowson 7, Barry-Murphy 5 (Tutte, 70 6), Kennedy 6, Jones 6, Adams 6 (Thompson, 85), Grimes 5 (Symes, 58 6), Akpa Akpro 5. Subs not used: Lucas, Holden Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Not a good performance at all, think that will be my last away game of the season..... we lost far too many games under Beach, but no doubt all the morons will still blame Steve Eyre for Rochdales relegation.
On a positive note, looking stronger at the back these last couple of games.
Note to Rochdale, start putting your prices down to reflect Division 2.
You cant blame Steve, It was the charimans appointment but he did have them playing some nice football, a strange decision to sack some one building a brand new team not half way through the season.
The currently lynching of managers these days is ridiculous, Alex Ferguson would have been sacked in his first season by the same judgements.
Only one question.Where are our strikers?.