Rochdale 2 - 1 Burton Albion

Callum Camps stunning strike opened the scoring for Dale

Rochdale produced a tremendous performance as they beat league leaders Burton Albion at a very wintery Spotland. Callum Camps stunning strike opened the scoring for Dale after eight minutes. Ian Henderson scored Dale’s second from the spot after he was felled by visiting skipper John Mousinho. Lucas Akins pulled a goal back for Burton to set up a nervy end but Dale stood firm.

After last weekend’s drubbing at Barnsley, Keith Hill made four changes to his starting line-up. Both full backs were replaced with Joe Rafferty and Tom Kennedy drafted in whilst Jamie Allen returned as skipper. New signing David Syers made his debut as the Dale boss looked for a positive response from his side.

In a strong wind with wintery showers and bright spells of sunshine, the conditions were always going to be tricky for both sets of players - Rochdale coping better.

Callum Camps’ 25 yard strike arrowed into the top corner of Jon McLaughlin’s for just his second of the season to silence the travelling fans of Burton.

Dale doubled their advantage 16 minutes later from the penalty spot. Ian Henderson was pushed inside the box by Mousinho and leading scorer Henderson dusted himself down before sending McLaughlin the wrong way from 12 yards.

Burton thought they had halved the deficit just before half time but Anthony O’Conner’s header was ruled out for offside.

With the two goal advantage, Rochdale played with a swagger in the second half and almost made it three soon after the restart. A powerful shot from Allen caught McLaughlin off guard with the keeper fumbling the shot just over the bar.

There wasn’t too much goal mouth action in the second half as Dale held Burton at arms length.

Burton did sniff a comeback was on the cards when Akins lobbed the ball into an empty net after a mis-communication between Jim McNulty and Josh Lillis.

The goal meant the Dale fans were a little twitchy for the last twelve minutes but Dale managed the remainder of the game well and ran out deserved winners - a first ever league victory over Burton Albion.

Attendance: 2,994

Rochdale: Lillis, Rafferty, Lancashire, McNulty, Kennedy, Lund, Camps (Bennett 85), Syers (Andrew 85), Allen (c), Vincenti, Henderson
Subs: (not used) Collis, Eastham, Tanser, Mendez-Laing, Bunney

Burton: McLaughlin, Edwards, Cansdell-Sherriff, Mousinho (c), McCrory, Weir, Akins, Naylor, O’Connor (Thiele 46), Duffy, Beavon
Subs: (not used) Bywater, Reilly, Joachim, Harness, Flanagan

Referee: Mr S Attwell
Assistants: Ms H Byrne and Mr P Wright
Fourth Official:Mr R Jones