Football: Rochdale 0 - 4 Burton Albion

Rochdale went down to their third successive heavy defeat after a 4-0 reverse at home to Burton Albion. Marcus Harness netted his first career hat-trick for the visitors with substitute Liam Boyce also getting on the scoresheet. Jordan Williams and Bradden Inman both forced good saves from keeper Bradley Collins but Dale just weren’t at the races.

After a week in which five players departed the Crown Oil Arena, Keith Hill made changes to his starting line-up for the visit of Burton. Josh Lillis was restored in net whilst Joe Rafferty, Jordan Williams, Bradden Inman and Matty Gillam were also given starts.

Both sides saw half chances go begging in the opening exchanges. Bradden Inman clipped a shot over the on-rushing Collins only for the ball to bounce across the face of goal whilst Lucas Akins headed wide from a good position.

The opening goal came after 19 minutes. A David Templeton corner ball from the left was flicked on by Jake Buxton with Harness stealing in to head in from close range.

Dale almost drew level on the half hour mark when Henderson’s clever pass found Jordan Williams; the former Barrow striker denied by the legs of Collins in the Burton goal and it proved a vital stop as the Brewers went up the other end and scored with their next attack.

A free-kick wide on the left was lofted towards Akins with the big striker doing a fantastic job at holding up the ball before laying off to Harness who finished into the bottom right corner with Lillis wrong footed.

The booing from the home faithful at half-time was clear for all to hear as they saw their side surrender far too easily.

To be fair, Keith Hill’s side improved after the break; Inman forcing a good save from Collins to his right top corner.

Despite an improvement, Dale never really looked too threatening and 2-0 became 3-0 when substitute Liam Boyce was afforded far too much time inside the area and he drilled a low shot into the bottom corner.

Harness completed his hat-trick in the final minutes when he drove forward and curled a shot from 18 yards beyond Lillis to finish the scoring.

Rochdale need some new players to boost the side heading into the second part of the season or another relegation battle is a distinct possibility.

 

Rochdale: Lillis, Rafferty, MJ Williams, Delaney, Done, Camps (Morley 74), Rathbone, Inman, J Williams, Henderson, Gillam (Holden 72)
Subs: (not used) Norman, McNulty, Ntlhe, Adshead, Yonsian

Burton: Collins, Fox, Buxton ©, Turner, Hutchinson (Miller 79), Allen, Fraser, Quinn (Wallace 13), Akins, Templeton (Boyce 59), Harness

Referee: Mr S Duncan
Assistants: Mr N Barnard & Mr A Pashley
Fourth Official: Mr A Backhouse

Attendance: 2,666 (216 from Burton)