Dale may well have had three of the starting eleven stranded on the M62, but it wasn't enough to stop us sticking four goals past relegation threatened Notts County. Report now online.

This promotion push is doing its very best to test us. For what looked on paper to be a regulation home banker, everything was thrown into the air in the minutes before kick off, with the news that a crash on the M62 had ensured that Stanton, McArdle and Muirhead were all stuck admiring the Pennine scenery when they should have been part of our team.

Despite the referee doing us a big favour by giving us all the time in the world to get our team sheet in, time beat us and we had to make three very late changes to the starting eleven, with D'Laryea, Holness and Thomspon all coming in for the Motorway Three.

What's perhaps more remarkable is that D'Laryea probably had about ten minutes notice that he'd have been playing despite having only played thirteen minutes of football since October.

But if the footballing gods were simply giving us a reminder that we shouldn't get carried away on the back of recent victories, we were saying "It's immaterial" as we carried on regardless with a makeshift, but highly dominant, central defensive partnership.

The first half brought pretty much what we expected with Notts County coming along, sticking that bus in their own half, and set about defending that magical clean sheet like that in itself was enough to secure survival.

They had chances, but they never really showed enough commitment to scoring to really put us under any pressure of any note. There was the odd moment where you thought that with any sort of confidence to win a game, they could have nicked one, but they looked like fish out of water every time they got in our half, and even when presented with a golden opportunity, they lacked the kahunas to really get a grip on this game.

But again, let's be clear about this. If we're talking about Notts County chances, we're talking about the minor moments of the first half, because it was a typical first half Dale performance.

That's not a criticism - we were on the whole solid, but perhaps understandably given the preparation to the game, we lacked the fluidity we had against Bradford last Tuesday, but we were dominant throughout without collecting chance after chance.

Arguably, the most influential person for County in the first half was the referee. He turned down one decent penalty shout for Dale, but then he must have taken pity on the visitors after turning down an absolutel stonewall shout if ever you've saw one.

County player Magic Johnson dived in front of one shot, with the goalbound effort prevented as it his arms only for the official to wave play on, when everyone inside the ground was wondering who was going to take the penalty in Alfie's absence.

County had a decent effort of their own in a scramble which was bizarrely remeniscent of last week against Bradford, as some County fans leapt about celebrating a goal. Lee made a decent save, but it was a crucial header off the line and a further close range block which ensured that we went in at half time on level terms.

Much was said in the build up to this game about the need for an early goal to counter County's defensive obsession, but given that in so many previous games, we have won the game in the second half, there was no reason for panic. To paraphrase the American philosopher Wayne Campbell, if we wait for them, they will come.

And so they did in a second half which was completely dominated by Dale from start to finish. Well up until their 2nd consolation goal which was greeted with more cheers in the home end than the away end. Bless!

We didnt have to wait long to take the lead, but it did involve a switch. Alfie was brought on for Joe Thompson, another player who wouldn't have even expected to have been in the squad for this game, and it saw the usual switch of Higgie to right wing. We were certainly going for it.

So enter Alfie, and within five minutes, we were in front. The move was kicked off by the highly influential Adam Rundle, who gave the ball to Kennedy. He crossed the ball over to Rene Howe, who climbed above us his marker to head home.

Now this is often the point where my first reaction is "Has it been allowed?". I've spent too much of my not too distant youth celebrating goals, only to see them chalked out. In fact, I went to one game once, and it wasn't till seeing the result in the paper the next day did I realise it had been disallowed.

Anyway, I looked over to the linesman, then to the referee, back to the lino and to the ref. The goal was given, and the minimum contact wasn't enough to see the goal ruled out. Sometimes, its good to have a linesman as a former work colleague.

Game over? You bet it was. There was only ever going to be one winner from this point, and County knew it, and played like it.

We were pressing all time at this stage, and it was a matter of time before we made it 2-0. Well a matter of about twelve minutes if you want to be precise.

And it was Rundle, many people's man of the match, who put the game beyond the reach of County. A couple of passes saw Rundle put through in the box, and his left footed shot cannoned through the legs of Russell Hoult to double Dale's advantage. Time to start plotting our passage to Dagenham.

But in scenes not a million miles away from the weekend, we gave the visitors a sniff of something they most certainly did not deserve. They broke down their left, with their sub beating Perkins to the tackle (not often you can say that) and with Lee racing away from his sticks, the ball was crossed over and Jason Lee beat Tommy Lee to score his first goal of the season. One to bring up over the Xmas family dinner no doubt.

But there was to be no Grimsbyesque panic this time round. Clearly Keith Hill had instructed the players that if the opposition even hint at getting back into the game, the best way to deal with it is to go out and score one of the best goals of the season. So we did.

The ball was cleared from the back to Le Fondre who was in the centre circle back to goal, and with a defender tight on him, he held it up before turning and putting Rene Howe clear down the right wing. Rene crossed the ball into the box to be met by a diving header from Alfie who had raced over forty yards to be there. There are times when Alfie is unplayable.

So game over, hard work done, let's have a laugh. And that we did, because within minutes of Alfie's goal, we got a fourth. And with our current scoring coming from all over the place, we didn't need that little bit of Charidee from the visitors which gave us our fourth.

Under pressure, County defender Michael Johnson who clearly thought that if Howe, Rundle and Le Fondre can beat Hoult, then he could too, and with a neat finish, he brushed the ball past Hoult to give us our fifteenth goal in our last five home games. With finishing like that, I refuse to believe that Hill and Flicker checked out every possible striking option they could to replace Glenn Murray. 4-1 and the lucky necklace strikes again.

Something weird happened at the other end. Whilst we were too busy dampening talk of third place and automatic promotion, someone reckoned that County won a penalty following a Ramsden foul. They scored it apparently. 4-2 it finished, and we walked out of Spotland, and not one single person mentioned the Play Offs at all.

Overall, a well deserved win, and yet again, we are finishing our chances. Even if we got a bit of help off County. That'll do for tonight. Next stop Dagenham. Be there.

Photo: Action Images

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