Dale dismay in derby day drama

Rochdale 1-3 Bury

The largest Spotland crowd of the season saw a classic derby game, packed with incident. It was a derby that Rochdale largely dominated; in the second half especially it was real backs to the wall stuff for the visitors. A goal behind at the interval, Rochdale bossed the final half hour to the extent that the ball spent more time in Bury’s box than it did the Rochdale half but for all their chances, a deserved equaliser never came and Bury broke in the last minute and won a penalty that sealed the game.

One could argue that this was just like any other Rochdale home performance; a lack of first half passion and pressure saw them head into the break 1-2 down, only for a reversal in the second half, largely thanks to the substitute appearances of Clive Moyo-Modise and Morike Sako, but, as has so often been the case they did not put the visitors to the sword when they were on the rack and they lost a fifth home league game of the season.

Having started brightly, Rochdale took the lead through Chris Dagnall; a superb individual goal in which Rochdale’s top scorer raced beyond Paul Scott along the byline, played a neat one-two with Keith Barker and then rifled the ball into the top corner.

Bury were back in it four minutes later. From a Tom Kennedy corner, the Dale defence were too busy appealing for a foul on Mark Jackson, as Bishop clambered on him, to deal with the danger posed when centre half John Fitzgerald brought the ball down and fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner.

Rochdale maintained the status quo of a home game, missing half chances, the most notable of which came when Keith Barker glanced a header onto the crossbar from a Darrel Clarke corner, enjoying plenty of the ball with some attractive looking build up play, only to be punished when, at the other end, Ernie Cooksey piled into a challenge that he was never going to win on Dwayne Mattis and hauled the marauding Bury midfielder down in the box. Former Dale striker Andy Bishop did the honours from the spot.

The second half was attack against defence. Bury’s superbly effective defence, dominated by goalscorer Fitzgerald, against a Rochdale attack that made less of an impact in terms of goals, but the double substitutes Sako and Moyo-Modise did their bit in rousing the home crowd into believing that this was a local derby in which their team would go down fighting. Steve Parkin said: "I couldn’t question my players. The commitment was excellent and I think every single player should be proud of the way they tried to get Rochdale back in the game."

Rochdale fans were behind their players throughout and few will place any criticism at their door after this performance but the Dale faithful may be more critical of their manager. Moyo-Modise has done more than enough recently to warrant the chance to excite the fans from the start and new signing Glenn Murray has done little to justify his automatic selection.

With Gary Brown outstanding in what was more of a winger position than that of a full back in the second half, Steve Parkin’s afterthought of putting on Adam Rundle, a true winger, with only four minutes remaining, was almost a kick in the teeth for those who believe Rochdale should play with wide men throughout.

Width was the key to Dale’s best second half chance. Brown whipped in a superb cross and it was firmly met by the head of Sako, only for the ball to cannon back of the crossbar with Schmeichel beaten in the Bury goal.

Rochdale’s real kick in the teeth came in the last minute, when the solid, if unspectacular Jon Boardman was sent off for bringing down Mattis as the midfielder stormed into the box once more as Bury broke clear with the home side camped in the opposition half. It looked like a tremendous tackle by Boardman and a tremendous blunder by the referee but replays suggest that the man in black was one of few people in the ground that saw it right. Bishop despatched the second penalty.

The two teams are now heading in different directions. Having won their last five, Bury manager Chris Casper is aiming high. He said: "perhaps we can mount a play-off challenge, we’re in the top ten after today and hopefully we can push on from there."

Rochdale, on the other hand, are only looking one way after three consecutive defeats and home form reaching a state of desperation. At the moment, performances are one thing and results are something else altogether. Performances at Spotland have been reasonable, if unspectacular, but the results show five losses and only five goals scored. This game proved that deserving a draw and earning one are two separate things. "We are judged on results and at the moment we aren’t getting any," said Parkin.

Reporter: Jan Harwood

Date article online: 05/11/2006