Rochdale 3 Harrogate Town 3

It ended all even at Spotland as the Co-op took on the Spa. Dale manager Robbie Stockdale would probably have rather been in the supermarket stock room checking barcodes than watching parts of this rocky horror show but will be pleased with his team’s resilience. It was certainly frustrating that Harrogate using 12 players, one of them dressed in blue. Dale players took turns to make up the extra man who specialised in lethal passes to the opposition in bear pit locations. This played to Harrogate’ strength which is ‘no fear ‘charges at their opponent’s heart.
Having said that, Dale’s new recruits and formation finally began to click, moving the ball forward fluently enough to score three good goals and come back from 3-1 down.
Dale broke the habit of a season and went to 4 at the back with Pearson side-lined by his groin. Ugh. It immediately became apparent as to why 5 at the back can be a good idea. Jeriel Dorsett generally had a decent game but sent a weak right footed clearance out and Alex Pattison ran powerfully at a lop-sided Dale defence and finished with a strong shot into the fishing net. Dale began to mount composed attacks and were rewarded when Clark cut in and curled a fine snooker shot off both posts and in.
Dale looked promising for a second goal when calamity struck. Kelly had been playing well and putting in some excellent tackles that belied his slight frame when he was caught as last man against a Harrogate attack. He appeared to have the ball under control but an unknown wizard put a spell on him and forced him to fall over the ball before presenting it to Pattison who bizarrely set off early for home with it towards Harrogate. The necromancer in the away stand then forced Liam to foul Pattison who executed an exquisite pirouette dive to leave the ref in no doubt.
Dale came out for the second half looking for a goal and duly produced one after only a minute. Dale have become experts at surrendering possession from throw-ins and dispensed with formalities by feeding Harrogate in the middle of the park. Harrogate duly ran up the field and scored …3-1.
The crowd got a bit edgy at this point and began to moan and make unpleasant remarks about their own side. However, Dale stuck at it and brought on Mr Odoh. Mr Odoh had a poor late run out as sub at Oldham where he tried too hard and everything went astray. This time he was back to his electric best. He either ties the ball to his foot with his bootlaces or simply glues it in place. Only he knows. Harrogate certainly didn’t and Abraham began to run through them for fun. Good strong-arm work from Newby and a cunning pass from the busy Dooley set up a tap-in for Mr Odoh and the game was really on.
Thavon Campbell had been playing at centre forward for 4 or 5 hours at this point without really looking like scoring. Though to be fair, he has been at least 25 yards from the nearest team mate for most of this time, and had at least seen a couple of chances go by in the first half. But there’s something likeable about him…the way he sticks to his task even when things aren’t happening for him. Not to mention rugby tackles from very basic defenders. The arrival of Charman from the bench with 10 minutes to go changed everything. Suddenly Harrogate had two in the middle to worry about and couldn’t really cope. Thavon ran with the ball, got a break from a Charman tussle and lashed it in. 3-3. Game over.

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