Dale made the quite horrible trip down to Kent to take on Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium and came back with a very useful point after a 1-1 draw.  Full match report now online.

Gillingham away is a new one for me, it’s a tick in the box for doing all the grounds in the Football League but I don’t particularly want to do it again.  I’m not one for complaining about distances involved in traveling away from home but when you see signs for the Channel Tunnel not far away, you do wonder where the hell you’re going to and there was at least 133 of us (if Jangleberry’s Dad can count properly), so a massive pat on the back to all that went. 

Going into the game, I feared a “wounded animal” type of response to the buckets battering them on Saturday and therefore, had you offered me a point to take back to the North, I’d have quite happily snapped your hand off! 

Keith Hill was forced into a change with skipper Gary Jones being out with a medial knee ligament problem.  As expected Ciaran Toner came in to partner Clark Keltie.  I had a feeling that Joe Thompson might start as well given that he seems to be rotating with Will Buckley this season and that was the case again with Buckley dropping to the bench.  The rest of the team was unchanged and therefore we lined up with Russell, Wiseman, Kennedy, Stanton, McArdle, Thompson, Rundle, Toner, Keltie, Thorpe and Le Fondre with Spencer, Holness, M. Jones, Higginbotham and Buckley on the bench.

 It was the home side that enjoyed the majority of the possession early on but Dale managed to carve out a couple of decent early chances themselves when Lee Thorpe got his timing slightly wrong for a header on goal and headed wide. 

Rory McArdle almost became the unlikely hero when his effort was blocked from a TK corner shortly after that. 

Typically though, the first chance that the Gills created was one they scored from.  Ciaran Toner lost the ball in midfield, the ball then found it’s way out to Albert Jarrett on the left wing who was given time to put in a magnificent cross that Simeon Jackson finished off past Russell after he got clear of McArdle. 

At that point, I felt it wasn’t going to be our night. Gillingham took strength from that and looked to take the game to Dale with Sam Russell having to pull off a superb save to stop Samuel L Jackson from doubling his tally. 

The best Dale chance of the half fell to Clark Keltie just before the half time whistle as a corner fell to Keltie and he blasted the ball goalwards from about 6 yards only to see it blocked on the line brilliantly.  I  Couldn’t quite see if it was the keeper Simon Royce or one of his defenders but it stopped a certain equalizer anyway.

Half time came and Dale were going to have to improve a lot if they were going to get anything from the game and as we’ve come to expect under Keith Hill, they did. 

What wasn’t good too see though was Scott Wiseman pull up in a chase of Albert Jarrett in a very similar style to how Simon Ramsden did it a few weeks ago.  Wiseman was forced off straight away and probably faces a spell on Andy Thorpe’s treatment table.  Marcus Holness came on to replace him and I had immediate concerns that Jarrett would do Big Bob for pace at will and was hoping Hilly would move Stanton to right back but it didn’t happen and thankfully it didn’t matter that much. 

Dale began to get into the game much more and Joey Thompson broke from the wing and released Alfie who got to the byline before pulling the ball back but the ball was cleared for the corner before it reached one of the on-coming Dale players. 

Annoyingly though, Rory McArdle faces a one match suspension after picking up his 5^th booking of the season and with Wiseman out as well, we’ll have to hope Ramsden is fit to cover with Bob Holness going at centre back. 

Tom Kennedy had been poor for the most part but his one positive influence saw him get an assist when he broke from the back to give Le Fondre the ball and Alfie produced a looping shot straight over Royce and I was up celebrating before the ball nestled in the back of the net. It was an absolutely stunning finish to give him his 8^th goal of the season. 

Special mention to Alfie as well who, in the second half, was absolutely unplayable.  Rio Ferdinand and John Terry would have struggled against him.  He was causing all sorts of problems and was doing Thorpe’s job of holding the ball up and the wingers’ job of getting the ball out wide.  Superb.   

Alfie even went close again shortly after when he fired a shot that Royce was able to get down to and push it away. 

Will Buckley was brought on for a very ineffective Adam Rundle in the hope of bringing about a Dale winner but despite a few jinking runs, the end product was missing and it didn’t bring about the desired effect. 

The home side managed a very brief spell of dangerous possession with time running out and there was a bit of panic in the Dale goalmouth at one point but it was cleared eventually and the game ended 1-1 which I’m fairly content with. 

Dale now have a break from the league with a trip to Stroud in the FA Cup second round on Saturday to take on Forest Green Rovers of the Blue Square Premier before their next league game which sees us travel up North to Darlington.

Photo: Action Images

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