A first career goal for Kallum Higginbotham and a return to form for Glenn Murray saw ten men Dale come from behind and leapfrog our way into the top half of the table.
That'll dink dank do for me! Another fine away victory saw Rochdale climb up the table to 10th as they beat Accrington Stanley (who are dey?! Exackly!) 2-1 despite being down to 10 men for most of the game and playing in horrendous conditions.
It was more like the film The Day After Tomorrow than a football match but despite the conditions, Rochdale outplayed Accy and second half goals from Higgy and Murray were enough to win the game despite having Perkins sent off shortly before going behind to a Crainey freekick.
Evil was not allowed to play against his contracted club so Glenn Murray returned to the starting line-up alongside Adam Le Fondre up front. Russell remained in net with McArdle returning to the first team alongside Stanton with Ramsden and Kennedy at full back. Higgy was on the right, Rundle on the left with Perkins and Jones in the middle. On the bench were Ribgy, Holness, Prendergast, Doolan and young Ben Wharton, a YTS striker who has been banging in the goals left, right and centre for the reserves.
Dale started off quite well and looked the more likely to score with Le Fondre and Murray linking up well but there was a lack of clear cut chances created though the boggy outfield didn't exactly help matters but right from the off it was a battling performance against what looked a poor Accrington side.
The referee became the centre of attention in the first half unfortunately for Rochdale. He failed to caution Rochdale reject (and Col Cavanah lookalike) Leighton McGivern for twice kicking the ball away and the "rat" as he became known thanks to Jangleberry and Kaminskas had succeeded in winding the fans up. David Perkins went flying in with a tackle which wasn't a good tackle but their lad rolled about in agony and of course, the non-leaguers players take exception to the tackle and a big fuss kicks up and the referee showed Perkins a straight red card. At the time I thought it was a very harsh red card, the tackle wasn't good as I've said but it didn't warrant anything more than a yellow and the Accy players reactions got him sent off. That said, I've just seen the replay on Sky Sports News and had I been the referee, I'd have done the same.
A couple of minutes later and Accy took the lead. The softest freekick ever was awarded about 20 yards out and I'm still not sure what for really. Anyway, Ian Crainey stepped up and as soon as he struck it, you could tell exactly where it was going and that was straight into the top corner leaving Russell completely stranded.
Things weren't looking good here and I was getting cursed by my Dad for dragging him to the game and him getting soaked!
Dale continued to battle hard and it wasn't long before the tactician in Keith Hill came out as he sacrificed Adam Le Fondre and stuck John Doolan in midfield leaving Murray up front on his own after about half an hour.
Adam Rundle should have done better with an effort he had just before the break after Jones had broken through, laid it off to Rundle and the left winger had got into the box and into a good shooting position but his shot flew over the bar.
The half time whistle came and despite the game situation, I always thought we could get back into the game.
I was right and with ten minutes of the second half played, Dale went and equalised. John Doolan played a fantastic ball through to Kallum Higginbotham who out-fought Williams and barged him off the ball before cutting inside, and finishing past Dunbavin with the outside of his foot. Wonderful goal and a great effort from the young lad who seems to go from strength to strength and looks fully deserving of his 3 year contract extension.
McArdle should have done better when he rose quickest for a corner but his header was way off target.
Accy still go nowhere near scoring with McArdle and Stanton looking absolutely rock solid. Russell wasn't tested much but dealt with everything very well in awful conditions, especially for keepers.
You could sense that Dale could get something more out of the game with Accy rarely threatening and from an Adam Rundle corner, Glenn Murray rose like a salmon and headed the ball off the underside of the crossbar to make it 2-1 to Dale. Murray has been criticised for his season's performances which have been under par and to say he needed a goal to boost his confidence would have been an understatement so it was especially pleasing to see Murray bag his 5th goal of the season.
With a couple of minutes to spare, Ben Wharton was brought on to replace Higgy. Chants of "There's only two David Perkins'" were heard given the young strikers bleech blonde barnet and he nearly had the dream start to his Dale career as Doolan threaded a superb ball through to him and just as he was about to side foot past the keeper, the ball stopped dead in the mud and was followed up by Murray who shot straight at the keeper.
The game finished 2-1 and that away win feeling was awesome, even if we were all freezing bloody cold and soaked!
Bring on Rovram!
Player
Ratings:
Sam Russell - 7
Simon Ramsden - 7
Tom Kennedy - 7
Rory McArdle - 7
Nathan Stanton - 7
Kallum Higginbotham - 8
Adam Rundle - 7
David Perkins - 6
Gary Jones - 7
Adam Le Fondre - 6
Glenn Murray - 7
John Doolan - 7
Ben Wharton - 7