Report: Dale 2 Lincoln 2

I'd have put it slightly different. This had been a fantastic game of football, and there are times you just have to hold your hands up and admire what you have seen - an richly entertaining game between two very good sides from start to finish which could have gone either way. I'd take entertainment like this over a Wycombe style "park the bus" 1-0 cagey win every time. Besides, we never beat Lincoln, do we?

With the overnight heavy rain proving to be the best possible endorsement of the work on the pitch over the past year or so, a decent crowd of just under three thousand turned up at Spotland for our first game in a fortnight.

We had several changes. We had the return of Gary Jones for his first game in almost two months, and with just two wins picked up in his absence, his return couldn't have been better timed.

A late injury to Scott Wiseman in the warm up ensured that Simon Ramsden was forced to come into the starting line up, and Will Buckley was given a break from playing out on the wing, storming his way into the top 30 players in the world, whilst awaiting a phone call from Abu-Dhabi, as he was pushed up front. It's difficult to remember that he was seen primarily as a striker just a few months ago.

And if that wasn't enough changes for us Messageboard Managers, we had the debut in goals for Frank Fielding who came in as a replacement for the injured Sam Russell.

The first half had nil nil written all over it. Not a dull, drab typical League Two 0-0 which you often seem to get in January, but you never quite got the impression that the first half was going to produce a goal. Both times were going for it, but defences always seemed to be just about coming out on top.

As nil nils go, this was a good one. Lincoln were clearly a good side, and I don't think our defence will come up against a more experienced forward line up all season with Elding and Horsfield. Horsfield may well have gone on to have had a fantastic career in the game, and fair play to him for all his recent efforts in overcoming his illness, but between 3pm and 5pm, he was just an aging fat bloke from Halifax, like a modern day Bobby Davison.

But of course, the theory of the nil nils didn't last particularly long. Adam Rundle, who richly deserved his man of the match award, encouraged Frank Sinclair to retire by skinning him inside out, before letting fly with a shot from outside the box.

Burch got the shot, but in a role reversal for us, we took advantage of a rebound, with Alfie pouncing in to give us the lead.

Everything was looking tight, and the sort of game where one goal could seal it, when debutant Frank Fielding showed why Bruce Grobelaar is the biggest influence on his career. The England U-21 international went flying out of his box so far that he'd have needed Sat Nav to find his way back again. However, his part time midfield role proved to be decisive as he and Ramsden combined to successfully prevent a shot. No worries about this fella being stuck to his goal line.

Half time came and the balls were out. Lincoln returned to the pitch a good five minutes earlier than we were, and rather than just standing around admiring the much heralded January Rochdale skyline, they went through a few routines with football, as a warm up for the second half.

Which kinda makes sense. Now obviously there's no way of knowing whether this warm up had a direct influence on them starting the second half better than we did but they were certainly much brighter than we were, and within a couple of minutes they were back on level terms.

The biggest turnaround in the game came at the interval. With Frank Sinclair pensioned off during the break, Imps boss  Peter Jackson had a reshuffle and swapped this anonymous winger from the right hand side to the left. It changed the game.

In the first half, N'Guessan was simply making up the numbers. Unleashed on the left, he became the best player on the pitch by a country mile and we couldn't live with him. He was quite simply unplayable.

Within two minutes of the restart, they were level. The papers have it down as an own goal, basically because that's what it was, but it wasn't difficult to have sympathy for TK. A great cross followed some good work down the left and with an attacker pressing on him, TK's attempted clearance resulted in it going straight in. A difficult ball to play, but an impossible ball to leave. Either way, the unthinkable had happened and we were now back on level terms.

At this point, we were being murdered. N'Guessan had declared himself the star of the show, and we couldn't even get close enough to him to foul him. Everything was going through him, and whether it was good fortune or a master stroke by Jackson to switch him to the left, it had worked and we couldn't cope.

He'd threatened previously with one effort which went just wide, but second time round he made no mistake. He controlled the ball in our penalty box, turned and put it perfectly into the top corner. Fielding had no chance whatsoever.

Losing was not even a remote possibility at half time, and with the Imps threatening to run away with things at this stage, it was coming back to haunt us yet again for that early 90's period of domination over Lincoln. Without doubt, they were the world's stickiest bogey as far as we were concerned, and Toxteth O'Grady would never have argued.

N'Guessan nearly called the last rites when he sent a shot crashing against the post. Such was the ferocity of it, that it cannoned off the woodwork before going out for a throw in. We've had plenty of strikers in the past who were capable of putting shots out for throw ins but nothing like this.

But then something happened. It was almost like that bit in Escape to Victory at half time when they were staring defeat in the face, before someone pipes up "We can still win this". And everything changed. From that point on, we chucked everything at Lincoln and bogey or no bogey, there was no way we were going to give this one up without a fight.

Rory McArdle had the first effort when he put a free header over the bar from the corner, with the Imps keeper nowhere to be seen, though Burch did better a few moments later when he came racing out of his box as Dagnall did what Dagnall does as well as any player in the division by finding himself in space five yards before the opposition backline, but Burch saved well as Daggers attempted to lift the ball over him.

By now we were on fire, and the twenty minute spell where Lincoln had threatened to kill us off was long forgotten about. It seemed a matter of time, but every time, something seemed to hold us back. Keltie produced a wonder pass to put McEvilly through but his toe poke went wide of the post.

We were showing that when we lay into a side, nobody can come near us and it proved to be the best of way of keeping away supporters sat down as being seated was the only thing preventing them having the brown stuff running down their legs. We were on fire.

And with just six minutes to go, the highly deserved equaliser came. Dagnall broke into the box before pulling it back to Lee McEvilly who still had work to do before firing the ball into the back of the net. Job done, game on.

We then had perhaps the stupidest moment in the entire game, as the Lincoln keeper kicked out as Evil tried to rescue the ball from the back of the net so we could go on and seek out a winner, eventually shoving Evil into the net. A different referee may well have brought out his red card, if only to protect the Lincoln keeper from an angry Evil. I'm surprised he didn't plead for it for his own safety.

And then came the "what might have been" moment......

Without doubt, it was this next moment that had people talking after the game. Will Buckley went on one of his trademark runs. He picked the ball up almost straight from the kick off, and weaved his way past imaginary defenders with ease, before giving himself a glorious chance.

Now of course, hindsight says he should have passed it through to Dagnall or Evil who were lurking with intent in the middle, but hands up amongst us who wouldn't have done the same? Hands up who didn't want Buckley to try and finish off his fantastic run with an effort? Had the goal gone in, we'd have had one of those bonafide moments of history which don't come along that often. Had it gone in, we'd have still been celebrating it for years to come.

As it was, it only troubled the side netting, but it was further proof of this wonderful talent that we have in Will Buckley since he got us all saying "that's not Kyle Buckley" on that balmy evening at Rossendale. We've often compared him to Paddy, but are we not at the stage yet of saying that Buckley is actually better than the Derry Diego?

Certainly, I don't remember Paddy doing 3 or 4 of those wonderful runs per game like Buckley has the ability to do. The boy Buckley is the real deal.

That Buckley chance was the final real chance of the game. There were a couple of moments after that but nothing get your heart racing away and the three minutes of added time passed without incident to give both sides a point.

It's easy to point to those missed chances, but let's not take them away from what was a great game of football, ever so patronisingly described by the Sky Sports experts as a "smashing advert for League Two football", and clichés aside, it would have been harsh for either side to have come away with nothing from this game.

The road to the play offs is built not just on wins, but also on hard fought points. I'm sure this two all draw with Lincoln will be looked on more favourably than the same result back in 2001-2.