| In all honesty, this was an afternoon of disappointment, as Dale will look back on the chances that they had with regret. We certainly created enough to win, but found themselves themselves thwarted time and again by former Dale reserve keeper Lee Martin. Martin had a great game with some scrambled saves, which included a fine penalty save from Gary Jones to deny Dale the win.
It wasn't all one way traffic by a long way, with Macclesfield having chances to snatch all three points themselves, with Neil Edwards having to match the display of his opposite number to keep Dale in it.
Somewhere in the region of 800+ Dale supporters braved the Cheshire rain to follow Dale down to Macclesfield for this game. This helped give the home side a bumper crowd of 2,255, with the slight majority enjoying at least a roof over their heads and not a Luton supporter in sight. The Dale supporters were left exposed to the elements all the way though the game, and many were left soaked at the final whistle.
Dale manager Steve Parkin opted to go with the same team that did so well five days earlier at home to Carlisle. This meant Platt and Connor up front again, continuing their blossoming partnership that brought Dale six goals on Tuesday.
The game began on an excellent playing surface, in contrast to the surface of a couple of years ago, but on the whole the first half was mostly a disappointing one, with few clear chances for either team. There were one or two efforts which raised an eyebrow, but nothing to worry either keeper.
Dale continued to play a more aerial game, just like they did on Tuesday evening, but it didn't achieve too much success in the first half, as the referee seemed intent on blowing up for a foul by Clive Platt every time he got near the ball, when many times he was the victim in the challenge.
Dale seemed to have the majority of the possession, and pushed forward at every opportunity, but in doing so left gaps down the left hand side, allowing former Man City munchkin Chris Shuker plenty of space down that side. Fortunately for Dale, he regularly failed to take advantage of the opportunities he was presented with.
Second half brought the rain and Dale attacking towards the massed ranks of supporters in the uncovered away terrace, and it was certainly an improvement on the first half, with both sides looking that bit more threatening. Indeed, it wasn't just the teams who were threatening, as a sprinkler on the side of the pitch was set off at one point soaking all those around them. Ah for the days when we have and need a sprinkler at Spotland!
The first chance of the second half came Macclesfield way, following an attempted clearance. It was looped back in from Richard Tracey with Edwards stranded before looking like it came off the cross bar. Had Macclesfield had any players moving in for the drop down, then it would have been a goal. It did find it's way to a Macc player but he hesitated, allowing the ball to be cleared much to the delight of the travelling support.
This signalled an improvement from Dale and within a couple of minutes we could have taken the lead. Clive Platt took the ball down the right hand side, before pulling the ball back to Dave Flitcroft who had followed up superbly to be waiting around the penalty spot. Flitcroft kept his shot down well, but found Martin to be in equally good form, and Flitrcroft saw his shot palmed onto the cross bar, when it looked a certain goal.
Five minutes later the win should have been secured when Dale were rightly awarded a penalty. The penalty was awarded after Dale striker Paul Connor and Macc defender Paul Came tussled in the box. Came impeded Connor, and ref got one of his first things right by awarding the spot kick to Dale. Up stepped Gary Jones, but he saw his shot saved superbly again by Martin who dived full length to his right hand side to tip the ball away for a corner.
This gave a bit of fresh impetus to Macclesfield who followed this up with a couple of attacks, but they could not get the better of Neil Edwards who looked assured when called upon. They had a smattering of corners but nothing really to cause any sort of panic.
As the game wore on, Dale looked more and more likely to be the team to snatch the win, if a victory was to be gained at all. Paul Connor had a super effort as the game approached the final quarter of an hour, when he had a free header from within the six yard box. A cross came in from the right hand side, but Connor's diving header went straight into the arms of a very relieved Lee Martin.
As the game approached the final ten minutes, Dale's attacks became more and more desperate, as we went forward searching for all three points. Twice within the final few minutes did we have the ball cleared off the Macc goal line. One shot saw the ball come off Martin's face and onto the cross bar, whilst another saw Dave Bayliss try and knock it in by any means necessary!
But as Macclesfield seemed content to play out the final few minutes with a goalless draw for their results, we did indeed run out of time to the delight of the home supporters. The away following trudged out knowing that overall three points were there for the taking today, had Lee Martin not been in such excellent form and had our finishing been better.
Despite our numerical advantage in terms of chances, we could quite easily have come away from this fixture with nothing to show from it, had Macclesfield taken advantage of the gaps we left at the back as we piled forward. They certainly had the chances to score at least one goal, and they probably feel that they deserved one.
This was mostly a disappointing Dale performance, so perhaps we should be thankful for the point from what was never going to be an easy fixture. There were bookings for Lee Todd, who can consider himself unfortunate to be cautioned, and Michael Oliver who took out Macc winger just before half time, and he can consider himself fortunate to be just given a yellow for what was a very late challenge. Keen was booked for Macclesfield in the last ten minutes for a moment of madness when he reacted to not getting a free kick of his own (which he should have done) by taking out Wayne Evans with a scything tackle in retaliation for something Evo hadn't even done!
Ultimately, this will go down as a day of missed chances. Results elsewhere have done us no favours, and with points at this stage at a premium, we need all the points we can get in our play off push.
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