| This game was seen by many as one of the biggest of the season. The Sky cameras present and a promotion clash. Obviously, the players and supporters of Leyton Orient disagreed as neither contributed. To be fair to their players, they did as well as they were allowed to, but to bring less than 200 supporters for a match of this stature shows that they do not deserve promotion. That might sound harsh, but it seems that most Orient supporters were content to take advantage of Rupert Murdoch's television coverage than turn up to cheer their team on in a vital six pointer.
Whatever, all the plaudits ended up with Dale, as Dale produced arguably their best home performance under the managership of Steve Parkin to comfortably win the match 3-1 in a scoreline which was very much deserved. In brief, Dale dominated the match from start to two minutes from the finish, keeping Neil Edwards untested till the very last minute.
As the happy fans trooped out at the final whistle, promotion seems a very real prospect, especially seeing as we despatched with one of our promotion rivals with such ease. With the future of Chesterfield in a very real danger, and our games in hand on teams above us, there is no reason why we cannot even stretch ourselves and make the top three. Sure, reaching the play offs must remain our first priority, and it would be unwise to assume that play off status was already achieved, but Dale came through a huge test today relatively unscathed.
The game began despite early morning fears that the Rochdale weather would put the game in doubt. Yes the supporters may have ensured that the pitch was playable by helping out the groundsman on Saturday afternoon after the Hornets played on the turf, but as always there was a sting in the tail with heavy fog present in the area on Sunday morning. Fortunately it lifted sufficiently for the game to take place by the time midday came along.
Dale went into the game with just the one change from the last three games with young winger Phil Hadland coming in on the left wing in place of ex Man Utd starlet Simon Davies. There was also a place on the bench for recent loan signing Kevin Kyle who joined the club late on Friday on a months loan from Sunderland.
With the fog starting to clear, it was soon evident that Dale were very much up for this game and they attacked the visitors right from the off. Obviously, the players had listened to Sky Sports expert Steve McMahon in the build up the game, and heard about our superb home form, and took that out onto the pitch.
There were a few half chance in the opening few minutes, with Gary Jones firing well wide from the edge of the box. However, Dale seemed well on top, limiting the opponents to very few ventures into the Dale half. Dale had a penalty appeal rightly turned down when Hadland did his usual dying swan appeal in the box.
Dale took the lead after around 15 minutes when Tony Ellis headed home. After the ball was popping around the box, Dave Flitcroft put over a cross which seemed to pick up snow before landing on the head of Tony Ellis who had no problem of beating his marker to head home past Mr.Ashley Bayes to give Dale an early lead.
This was obviously part of some Orient masterplan as there was no expected fightback from the Eastenders (something to do with omnibus edition starting midway thru the 2nd half?). Dale seemed very capable of coping with anything that they had to offer, and in contrast with the game at Brisbane Road earlier this season, Dale did not just sit on the lead.
The nearest Orient came to threatening the Dale goal came when Keith Hill, who was brought on in place of Mark Monington who was forced off with a hamstring injury, gave away a free kick just outside the Dale penalty area. He seemed to struggle for pace in an attempt to keep up with his attacker and as a result had to tug on his shirt. Put it down to lack of match practice. Fortunately the free kick resulted in nothing but a yellow card for Lee Todd who objected to it for some unknown reason.
Anyway, Dale doubled their advantage just before half time with what looked at first light like a real contender for goal of the season. Gary Jones won the ball just outside the O's penalty area before playing an exquisite one-two with Phil Hadland, before curling the ball past Ashley. However, it later transpired that it took a slight deflection off an Orient defender.
This brought along half time, and within minutes of the restart the game was all over. Phil Hadland got hold of the ball in his own half and ran with it. And ran and ran. Just as it looked like he was going to get tackled, he timed his pass to perfection, slipping the ball to Tony Ellis who had broke free on the left. Unfortunately, Ellis saw his shot saved by Ashley, but the rebound went back to Hadland who controlled the ball before sticking it into the net at the Sandy Lane end of the ground to give Dale an uncatchable three-nil lead.
Minutes later it was almost four, and it was only thanks to a brilliant save by Ashley that it wasn't. It looked like Clive Platt had scored his first goal since November when he turned and headed from the edge of the box. He may have had the placement, but it didn't have the power to beat Ashley who produced a superb save to tip it wide for a corner.
The rest of the game saw Dale well in control with neither side looking likely to add the scoreline. The visitors from London grabbed a consolation goal with their first effort on target in the very last minute, but there was never a danger of a fightback.
The final whistle brought a thoroughly deserved victory which could have been by a greater margin. Onwards and upwards, and promotion is looking all the more likely.
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