Match Report (19.10.99) - Dale 0 Macclesfield 1 Thursday, 2nd Aug 2007 12:12
Tonight's game was a disaster. A poor crowd, and another blank in front of goal.
Tonight's game was a disaster. A poor crowd, another blank in front of goal,and more worryingly a home defeat. Dale are starting to slip down the table at a worrying rate. Dale conceded an early goal tonight, and neve rlooked capable of getting back into the match.
Tonight's attendance tells its own story. So far this season, we have seen an upsurge in crowds with an extra thousand home fans making their way through the turnstiles buoyed on by the new improved Rochdale FC. Tonight just 2,397 turned up with about 400 of that being supporters of the visitors. That really is poor for what is considered by some to be a local derby in the absence of other contenders. The five match streak without a goal at home has finally took effect. Mr. Parkin, the honeymoon is officially over.
And then it got worse. Dale slumped to a one nil defeat against an impressive looking Macclesfield team and found themselves falling to ninth in the table in the process. The goal which proved to be the winner, came after just five minutes, following a corner as the visitors attacked the Sandy Lane end of the ground. The corner was headed on at the near post giving striker John Askey a free header to put the Silkmen in front.
After that is was just oh so predictable as Dale had loads of possession yet failed to make a worthwhile challenge on former Dale reserve Lee Martin in the Macclesfield goal.
Macclesfield played very well and came and did what they had to do. They had obviously done their homework and realised that Dale are struggling to break down packed defences. So that is what they did. When Dale were on the attack, they brought all but one player back, and they swarmed around the midfield giving the Dale players little time on the ball, which forced plenty of mistakes in the process.
Dale yet again couldn't manage to break down the stubborn defence, and were limited to long range efforts which were far too weak to cause any problems. The nearest we came to scoring came when Michael Holt took control of the ball and ran at the defence. He got through, and instead of shooting he laid the ball off to Graeme Atkinson at the far edge of the box, whose shot was well saved by Martin.
The half time whistle came to near silence, as the home fans could not believe that they had yet again witnessed such a disappointing performance. Julian Dowe was immediately told by Steve Parkin to get warming up as he would be starting the second half. It turned out that he would be replacing Michael Holt.
In the second half, it started brighter as Dale seemed to be playing with a bit more urgency, but within a minute it soon reverted to the same style as the first, with the visitor's dominating throughout. As before, we had the bulk of the play but failed to capitalise on it. As the players became frustrated and devoid of ideas, the balls got longer and longer, and it soon became clear that we would not be scoring.
The closest we came was when Jason Peake had a header which produced a decent save from Martin but that was as good as it got. The Macclesfield players always seemed to get to the ball first before the Dale players did. They were very content to knock the ball about and waste off the remaining time. When we managed to get the ball, we seemed incapable of doing anything with it that may create a chance. Sub Gary Jones had a cross/shot which scraped the cross bar. Peake had a free kick as time ran out but it went over the bar by some way.
The final whistle brought a few boo's around the ground, but a lot of fans had already made their statement and left the ground.
It is time now to stop saying that the home form will sort itself out. The last two games have seen us struggle to put any sort of pressure on two average at best sides. I have no idea what the solution is. Perhaps it is time to change tactics at home, and maybe play 3 at the back with Evans and Searle operating as wing backs.
The midfield pair of Peake and Flitcroft have been overrun at home games. We have enough quality to do this. Another fault, is that we play our home games at the same tempo. This allows the opponents to get comfortable as we get predictable in our approach. Again I think this comes down to our midfield duo. There is a lot of responsibility on them, with the style that we play, but they must get more mobile. The forward pairing is looking weak. There seems to be no partnership forming between Holt and Platt. Both disappointed tonight, and are showing their age in lack of experience. Platt, despite being 6'3", is too easily pushed off the ball. Opposing defenders are muscling him off the ball every time. Eventually, he will learn from this, and improve his all round game, but for the time being we are suffering badly. Atkinson has had looked poor in recent games, and his position must be under threat. He is fortunate that we have not many players who can play that position. Perhaps, it is no coincidence that since Dean Stokes has been dropped from the team, we have only managed to win one match in five. Searle has not managed to form the same sort of partnership with Atkinson, as Stokes was doing. Whatever, it is back to the drawing board.
Dale: Edwards, Evans, Searle, Hill, Green, Carden (Jones), Flitcroft, Peake, Atkinson (Monington), Holt (Dowe), Platt.
Photo: Action Images
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