Rochdale 3 - 0 Gillingham

Matt Done sealed the win with Rochdale's third goal

Rochdale ran out comfortable winners against ten man Gillingham at the Crown Oil Arena.

Dale raced into a 2-0 lead through Ian Henderson and Joe Rafferty before Tom Eaves was shown a straight red card on the stroke of half time after a tussle with Rafferty.

Ian Henderson saw a late penalty saved after he was felled inside the area by Gabriel Zakuani; giant keeper Tomas Holy saving the spot kick.

Substitute Matt Done celebrated the birth of his daughter this week with a stoppage time breakaway goal to seal the win.

After the midweek demolition of Bury in the EFL Trophy group game,Rochdale came into this fixture against lowly Gillingham in confident mood and they controlled the game for large chunks.

Bradden Inman and Ian Henderson, both on the score sheet at Gigg Lane in midweek, had chances to add to their personal tally but could not beat Holy in the Gillingham goal.

With Dale pressing, the cracks were beginning to show in the Gillingham defence and when Joe Bunney’s direct run and shot brought about a low save, Henderson was on hand to stab home the loose ball to open the scoring.

With Gillingham still recovering from going a goal behind, the lead was soon doubled through the unlikeliest of sources. Holy dropped a Steven Davies freekick and Joe Rafferty was in the right place to head into the empty net.

Gillingham had shown their physical side throughout the opening 45 minutes, with Tom Eaves handing out some tough treatment despite already having been booked but when he wrestled with Rafferty with seconds remaining before the interval, referee Ilderton showed little hesitation brandishing a straight red card for the former Oldham striker.

Gillingham changed things around at half-time and despite their numerical disadvantage, they stemmed the Dale attack well.

Henderson brought about a great save from Holy when he was played in by Davies whilst the Dale captain should have done better with a curling effort from 18 yards.

With the game drifting, Dale were given a chance for a third from the spot after Zakuani’s reckless challenge on Henderson. The Dale captain stepped up to take the spot kick but his poor effort was easily saved.

Matt Done was introduced late on and his pace created Dale’s third. Rathbone’s intelligent pass picked out Done as he raced away before slotting past Holy for his second of the season.

A more comfortable afternoon you could not wish to have as a footballer with Rochdale never really getting out of second gear as they moved out of the bottom four in League One.

Rochdale: Lillis, Rafferty, McGahey, McNulty, Bunney (Ntlhe 71), MJ Williams, Camps, Rathbone, Davies (Andrew 58), Inman (Done 86), Henderson (c).
Subs: (not used) Moore, Slew, Williams, Daniels.

Gillingham: Holy, O’Neill, Zakuani (c), Nugent, Lacey, Ehmer (Parker 46), Bingham, Byrne, Clare, Eaves, Wilkinson (Nash 46).
Subs: (not used) Arnold, Hessenthaler, Oldaker, Ogilvie, Starkey.

Referee: Mr EL Ilderton
Assistants: Mr A Moore and Miss H Byrne
Fourth Official: Mr G Hart

Attendance: 2,793