Sod all that pre-season mullarkey now, it's time for the real thing as the football season finally arrived this weekend. Dale got off to a poor start with a 3-0 defeat against the title favourites Peterborough. Full match report online now.
Right then folks, football season is here at last and with Col being away, I'm doing your match report which would explain why it's already later than it should be.
I never thought we'd win the game to be fair but it was at around 10:30am on Saturday that I was 110% positive we were going to lose fairly heavily. I'm one of these people who think that if things start to go wrong before a game, then we'll end up getting beat so when the fan belt in Papa Chaff's car snapped at Brighouse, there was never going to be a positive end to the day and I knew that my bets would lose, Dale would lose and I'd get nowt in town later on! Doing about 80mph on the M62 with Reverend & The Makers blaring out of the CD player, I heard a screeching noise and saw black smoke come out of the back. It then seemed fine until the temperature gauge nearly melted and we had to pull over. Thankfully, messageboard regular Brierls was doing his usual trick of setting off later than most people and he had space for me and young Tomlinson so we still got there in plenty of time for a pint and a perv.
Peterborough is usually a cracking day out I find and it has one of the best pre-match boozers in the league in the Peacock so it was there where we headed to meet up with the usual suspects and purchase my Centenary edition of the EGP from the Jihad while having the piss taken out of me. With it being shorts weather (as I was alerted to via text as we were arriving in what went down as the best text message ever), it was a case of pretty much everyone outside in the beer garden with just a few watching the Spurs game inside.
As I said, when we broke down I knew that the day was going to be bad and it did get worse when Sunderland beat Spurs 1-0 thus killing the two bets I had on for the day.
It was onto the game then and the usual trick of getting in as a student which was as easy as usual (My card expired in 2003) thus saving me ?3 which allowed for another pint that night. A very loud and optimistic Dale support were eagerly anticipating the match and expecting to get something out of the game which sadly didn't happen.
The team was as expected with Hilly lining up with a 4-4-2 with Spencer in net, a back four of Ramsden, Kennedy, Crooks and McArdle, a midfield four of Muirhead, Rundle, Jones and Perkins with Le Fondre and Dagnall up front. On the bench were new signing Sam Russell, Nathan Dairylea, Rory Prendergast, Jerome Watt and Glenn Murray.
I don't think the scoreline tells the whole story really because despite being beaten 3-0, Rochdale didn't play that badly really. The defence looked shaky, especially when Posh broke down the left with Ramsden and McArdle not on form but there were certainly positives to be taken from the game. Plus the fact that Peterborough were superb and that performance suggests they'll certainly be challenging for the title come May.
The frustrating thing about Dale's play was the lack of end product. There was a lot of nice build up but with Alfie and Daggers up front, they were getting absolutely nothing out of the big defensive unit at the back for Posh.
Unfortunately though, the Posh strikers were getting chances aplenty with Ramsden getting dragged inside and caught out of position every time Boyd and McLean broke forward and it was McLean who nearly opened the scoring when he was put through but he pulled his shot wide.
It wasn't too long before Posh got the goal they deserved when McLean played a lovely ball into Josh Low who took advantage of some poor defending from Ramsden and McArdle and slotted the ball past Spencer making it 1-0.
Dale were having to make do with half chances such as a scuffed Gary Jones effort from 20 yards, until Tom Kennedy put in a fantastic cross for Daggers who couldn't find the target.
Dale huffed and puffed a bit more without creating anything but with half time approaching, Posh went 2-0 up thanks to more poor marking and a goalkeeping mistake. A long ball caught out Crooks and Spencer was rooted to his line allowing McLean to side foot past him with ease. It was quite similar to Carlos Tevez' goal against Manchester United last season.
That goal killed the game off really and there was never any hope of getting back into the game unless changes were made.
To be fair, Hilly didn't wait until the 80th minute to change things like Parkin used to, he saw that things weren't working and with about 5 minutes of the half gone, he made a double substitution with Rundle and Muirhead being replaced by Dairylea and Murray as Dale went with my Pro Evolution Soccer 6 tactic of 3-4-3.
We saw an immediate change in performance as well, Kennedy came into his own down the left and Murray provided a bit of height up front and Dale were just starting to get into the game again and nearly broke through a few times but for Alfie and Daggers being given offside too often.
Peterborough still looked strong though and nearly made it 3-0 as Spencer did superbly to tip away a Boyd effort but the follow up from Whelpdale hit the crossbar and rebounded back to Josh Low who also smashed the bar and McArdle eventually cleared!!
Adam Le Fondre then had Dale's best chance of the game as he was put through one on one with the keeper but his hesitation proved costly and he turned a great chance into a half chance as Peterborough got back to defend but he still got his shot away and it went agonisingly wide of the post.
Daggers and Perkins but struck efforts straight at Jalal who was never really tested throughout the game.
With the Dale fans just wanting the final whistle to come, Posh made it 3-0 when they counter attacked and a Josh Low cross was tapped in by sub Danny Crow to complete the defeat.
It finished 3-0 and we headed home to go and get absolutely sloshed