Darlington 1 Dale 1

Dale should really have won as they were easily the better side and played some of the best football they have done this season and looking much more like the side that finished last season just outside the playoffs rather than the side that began this season. Darlington undeservedly took the lead through Tommy Wright after about an hour but substitute Rory Prendergast scored with only a couple of minutes to go to send the Rochdale fans home happy.

The journey up to the Darlington Arena, if that's it's name given that it's had more names than Puff Daddy and Prince put together, was a very pleasant one when we eventually got out of the dump that is Rochdale where we seemed to spend more time shouting at crap drivers and waiting in bloody traffic!

We arrived up there, parked up and headed into the ground where we heard that the team was exactly how we wanted it to be. Spencer started in net with Lomax at right back, Perkins at left back and Kennedy and McArdle in the centre of defence. Muirhead was on the right with Rundle on the left and Jones and Doolan in the middle with Le Fondre and Murray up front. New loan signing Marcus Holness took up his place on the bench along with former Darlo keeper Sam Russell, Rory Prendergast, Joe Thompson and Kallum Higginbotham.

The game got under way and the vultures in yellow coats swooped in to make everyone was sitting down and not blocking the view of the railing behind me including the Beth Ditto lookalike who was over every time she sensed someone was about to move a muscle!

Anyway, onto the game, Darlo started off really well and it wasn't long before they'd created a couple of decent chances with Purdie firing over the bar and Wainwright forcing Spencer to save well.

Rochdale began to get into the game a bit more and created a couple of chances of their own. Le Fondre completely skinned two defenders with a piece of skill that Ronaldo would have been proud of and he set up Glenn Murray who made a complete hash of his shot and made himself look very silly indeed. It's become clear so far this season that the Glenn Murray of this season, is nowhere near the Glenn Murray that bagged us 16 goals in 33 games last season and looks short of confidence.

Dale skipper Gary Jones is another player who recieved criticism early on this season but he's bounced back superbly and is really performing well again now. He almost put Dale 1-0 up with a shot from distance but unlike his usual efforts that end up nearer the corner flag, it cleared the crossbar by just a couple of inches.

With nearly half an hour up Dale should have been given the chance to go 1-0 up from the penalty spot. Just like on Saturday, Adam Le Fondre got himself in a great position to get a shot away inside the box and was brought down and just like on Saturday, he was given a yellow card for diving and just like on Saturday, it was a completely unfair decision! It's stupid decisions like this that give players unfair reputations resulting in referees being very reluctant to give anything in their favour.

A few minutes later and another Gary Jones effort nearly put Dale ahead, this time Oakes had to make a good save to keep out the captain's effort.

Oakes was called into action again shortly after that when a brilliant volley from Muirhead was wonderfully saved when it looked for all the world like it was sailing into the back of the net.

Dale were controlling the game now and looking the better side. Le Fondre was next to go close when his curling effort was pushed away by Oakes. Adam Rundle also had an effort tipped over the bar direct from a corner kick.

The whistle blew for half time and Dale were very unlucky not to be in front.

Dale continued where the left off and created a couple of good chances. John Doolan shot over the bar and a dangerous Adam Rundle cross was just too far in front of the stretching Ben Muirhead.

When you have so many chances and don't make the most of them, you can usually guess what's coming and sure enough we did. After commenting that we'd dominated proceedings, Jangleberry came out with it by saying "You know what's gonna happen now don't you? They're gonna go and score" just as another Dale fan with us set off for what he called a strategical piss where he said that he always misses a goal when he goes to the toilet in the hope that he'd miss a Dale goal! Well, he did miss a goal but not ours, before he'd come back to his seat, Joachim crossed and Tommy Wright headed home to put Darlington 1-0 up.

There's nowt more annoying than dominating and then going behind.

Hilly reacted by bringing some fresh legs on in the form of Kallum Higginbotham and Rory Prendergast in place of the largely ineffective Ben Muirhead and the impressive Adam Rundle as Dale went to get something out of the game with a 4-3-3 system.

The impact of that was almost brilliant when with pretty much his first touch, Higginbotham beat his man and put in a dangerous low cross which hit one time Dale target Steve Foster on the kneee and crashed against the crossbar. How the score was still 1-0 I couldn't fathom.

Not long after that, Adam Le Fondre hit a first time curling effort which was sailing into the far corner until Oakes produced a save right out of the top drawer to push it away for a corner. It just looked like it wasn't gonna be our night!

Dale continued to push for the equaliser and with two minutes to go, it finally came. Lomax sent the ball over to Prendergast on the left wing and the former Darlington loanee cut inside and smashed the ball past Oakes into the far corner to spark celebrations not unlike Saturday's! Justice finally served and it was a very good result that could and should have been even better really.

Next up for Dale is derby day when the buckets roll into town.

Player Ratings:

Spencer - 6

Lomax - 6

Perkins - 6

Kennedy - 7

McArdle - 7 (Man of the Match)

Muirhead - 6

Rundle - 7

Jones - 7

Doolan - 7

Murray - 5

Le Fondre - 7

Higginbotham - 7

Prendergast - 7