| Any hopes of producing a cliché free match report went straight out of the window, as this was the typical game of two halves. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find anybody who could describe it in any other way. Dale dominated the first half completely, and made Orient look far from a top three side. After the break, Dale were on the back foot for most of it, and found themselves conceding an excellent equaliser.
Despite the fact that we were leading, this will have to go down as a point gained, and not two points dropped, as it was a much improved performance on the one shown at Lincoln, with very few Dale players, if any at all, letting their team down today.
Dale travelled down to the traditional bogey ground, with manager Steve Parkin opting for a change in formation. Simon Davies was recalled to the starting line up, though that annoying tannoy bloke announced that Dale were fielding the ex Radio 1 daytime DJ Gary Davies. Davies was in for Ellis, meaning that Dale had reverted to just playing Plattini up front on his own, like he did against Cambridge, which so nearly brought us success. This also allowed Mickey Oliver to play a more central role, to which he is far more suited.
There was a good following of Dale supporters at the game with between 250 and 300 making the journey to the ground that away wins forgot. We were stuck in the usual main stand, and charged a fortune for the privilege. It's an utter disgrace when an away end is charging £10 for concessions to get it. I suppose it's not too bad considering that I'm 27 in a fortnight and still got in for U-16, but there's a principle at stake here!
As mentioned in the intro above, the first half was almost all Dale. We may not have hammered the Orient goal with shot after shot (not wanting to worry Ashley!), but Dale were so in control of everything. Orient just couldn't get past our midfield, who ran the show. Mickey Oliver looked far more comfortable playing inside, and played all the better for it, and perhaps the biggest surprise was the performance of Simon Davies who was excellent! On this showing, he has still got a lot to offer Dale!
Plattini was doing an awful lot of running up front, and as a result, did more to help the rest of the team in doing so rather than gain it for himself. Dale seemed to be causing all sorts of problems for the home side, with our steady build up and passing play. There was also danger from crosses, and that proved to be how Dale took the lead.
Dale were awarded a corner on the right hand side, and Tony Ford MBE swung it in. For some reason, the Orient defender Dean Smith decided that the best way of getting to the ball first was to stretch his arm upward and handle it! Bizarre! Anyway Premiership referee Dermot Gallagher, who was outstanding throughout, saw it straight away and pointed to the spot. For some unknown reasons, there a couple of protests from 2 or 3 Orient defenders. Perhaps Mr. Smith hadn't been too honest with them? Anyway, Gary Jones stepped up, and fired home with ease, showing no lack of confidence from his recent miss at Mansfield.
If this goal was to inspire the home side into anything, then I'm afraid it just didn't happen. The goal lead simply reinforced Dale's visible advantage over the home side. The passing continued and the O's were just not at the races!
And so it continued to half time. Orient had a couple of half chances just before half time, but nothing to really worry Neil Edwards. There were only two efforts on goal from them, one which went straight at him, and the other a header that he managed to tip away.
The second half saw a big change round, and one again the bulk of the action was in the same half of the field. However, Dale had a very early chance to make it two nil, when Mickey Oliver headed over from just yards out. A second goal at that stage would surely have raised the white flag from the home side.
Orient had signalled their intentions were to attack in the second half, but there seemed to be a real lack of bit to their attack and Dale looked very comfortable in defending their slender advantage. But it was the introduction of Orient substitute Opara ten minutes into the second half, when they really started turning the heat up. He gave the home side's midfield that bit of attacking options that they had been lacking previously.
But still Dale were looking fairly comfortable, but as the half progressed, the one goal lead was getting shakier and shakier. Dale were finding it very difficult to get out of their own half, and manager Steve Parkin opted to bring on an extra attacker in the shape of Tony Ellis, in a bid to help Dale hold the ball up more. Simon Davies who had an excellent match was withdrawn.
Orient were by this time getting very desperate, and the game was getting set up for a frantic closing stage. Orient had a shot cleared off the line, where it was more instincts rather than thought which helped the Dale defenders to do this. Referee Gallagher was stood on the back post thus ensuring that the ball had not crossed the line. They found themselves on the receiving end of some fantastic tackles, with Wayne Evans responsible for a couple of first rate challenges, which saw him win the ball comfortable just in front of the vocal Dale support.
At one point, Orient decided that the best way to score was to throw the Dale keeper Edwards into the back of the net, and that was exactly what they did when they shoved Edwards over the line. Again, referee Gallagher rightly ruled it out.
However, if the Orient side were getting desperate, no one told Belgian full back Walschaerts, who produced the one true moment of quality in the match. He picked the ball up outside the Dale box, and was given quite a bit of room. He took advantage of this, and fired home into the top corner from outside the area to give Orient what was by then a much deserved equaliser.
After this it was a lot more open. Tony Ford signalled to the bench that he could no longer continue due to fatigue, and young winger Phil Hadland was brought on to replace him. As Orient continued to pile forward, that left spaces at the back, and Dale almost snatched it in the final seconds. It was three against three as Dale attacked on the break before the ball came to Oliver in the middle on the edge of the box. He probably left his pass a little too late to Ellis who was free to his left. Ellis got the ball but curled it over.
Despite Orient's superiority in the second half, over the full ninety minutes a draw was just about the fair result, as Dale were well in control up to half time. This was a very valuable away point at the team with the best home record in the division, and defeat would have created a gap at the top of the table. As it is, if we win our game in hand, we will go above Orient.
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