| Bad day at the office I'm afraid, as Dale slumped to only their fifth defeat in the league all season after disappointing down in South Devon. On a playing surface more akin to Rugby League, Dale made hard work of it, as they failed to deal with a battling Torquay side who rarely threatened themselves.
Dale never really got going, and despite having enough chances to win the game, too many of the players had an off day. It would be difficult to single any of them out, as collectively they disappointed. They just never got going and left the 250 Dale supporters who had made the long journey depressed with many opting to leave before the end.
Parkin made two changes from the side that took on Scunthorpe on Tuesday with Michael Oliver coming in to start his first match since December in place of Phil Hadland who was on the bench. There was a recall for Tony Ellis who started ahead of Sunderland loanee Kevin Kyle.
The early stages of the game were largely anonymous, as was most of it if I'm being brutally honest. Flowing football was very difficult on a surface with more sand than the local beach, and as a result, we just never got to grips with it. Passes never made their target, and despite possession, we just couldn't carve out the chances we needed to.
Torquay had the balance of play in the opening part of the game, and it was the only time that they did. They had a couple of half chances but nothing that was going to worry Edwards. One effort went well over the bar.
But Dale came back at them, and they forced a series of corners, but none of them came to anything. With Monington not in the starting line up, we didn't look very effective from corners at all, and the home side dealt with them with ease.
Ironically, it was after this decent spell for Dale that the Gulls took the lead, and it was quite scrappy the way it came about. A thru ball was never dealt with, and Torquay midfielder Kevin Hill popped in with Ford in close attention to poke it goalwards and it went in.
Obviously, this wasn't part of the masterplan, and things could have got a lot worse not long after, when Dave Bayliss was very lucky to remain on the pitch. A Torquay player went down on the pitch, and Bayliss kicked out at him as he lay there. A bit naughty really, and it could have seen us down to ten men
Dale had two great chances before the half ended The first saw Clive Platt head the ball down for Tony Ellis who broke through and clear of the defence, but it lacked the end product as he fired the ball over the bar.
The other chance fell to Lee Todd who saw his header initially saved by 20 yr old keeper Ryan Northmore, who then got hold of the rebound as well.
Half time came and went, and hopes for an improved second half were to be dashed. Yes, we did play better in the second half, and we had an awful lot of possession, but we failed to really capitalise on it, and we couldn't turn possession into chances. Torquay offered little if anything in the way off atacking football, but with a lead already established, they didn't have to!
Ellis had a good chance, as did Jonah, but it was Michael Oliver who had the best effort when he shot from just inside the box, but keeper Northmore produced a good save to stop it going in.
With a quarter of an hour to go, Hadland and Kyle were brought on, but it was too late for either of them to really inflict themselves onto the game, with neither of them making a great deal of impact.
So in the end, a trip to Devon brought the usual return, and the players made straight for the tunnel at the end of the game, with only Edwards coming towards the sizeable away following to show appreciation. Whether this was purely disappointment, or as a result of some of the negative comments that came from the away end during the game, who knows.
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