Dale turned in another poor performance just when it seemed we had turned the corner, and were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Darlington.

Once again the fans stayed away from Spotland, with another sub 3000 crowd in attendance, with a rather poor turnout of away fans as well. The minutes silence was held impeccably, bar the youngster in the Sandy Lane who kept shouting 'Desmond'.

Dale lined up as expected. Lee Duffy taking a place in midfield on the right, and Michael Oliver partnering Dave Flitcroft in the middle. Up front it was once again the Platt-McEvilly partnership.

Dale started brightly and soon found themselves in the lead. Lee McEvilly ran at the heart of the Darlo defence and powered home a low drive into the bottom corner.

The goal seemingly kicked Darlington into life and Dale were pretty much on the backfoot for the rest of the half. An equaliser soon came when Ashley Nicholls strolled through a static Dale defence to sidefoot home past Neil Edwards.

Not soon later and Darlo thought they had taken the lead. Barry 'I handle the ball so much I should play Basketball' Conlon headed home, but play was brought back for a foul on Gareth Griffiths, who had been pole-axed as Conlon nipped in to head home.

The second half couldn't get any worse for Dale could it? Well obviously the answer was yes. Dale were outplayed for most of the game, and if anyone was going to get a winner then it was going to be Darlo.

Steve McAuley allowed Darlo in on goal due to his lack of pace, and if it had not been for two great saves from Edwards, then the points would have been going back up to the north-east.

Darlo had claims for a penalty turned down also when it appeared a Dale player handled whilst on the floor. Seen them given before, but fortunately the referee missed it, and Dale got away with it.

The introduction of Paul Connor once again sparked Dale into life, and the game became a lot more open. Dale though never really created any chances of note. A couple of weak efforts from Duffy, Platt and Oliver.

Dale almost snatched a winner at the end. It seemed that all Simmo had to do was cut the ball back for Connor, but he smashed it across the face of goal instead. Not impressive.

Once again today we were below par. You felt that all we had to do was step it up a gear and the game was there for the taking. Credit to Darlington though for putting up a fight, but we really need to be getting three points against such opposition.

The situation seems a lot worse when we was pretty much outplayed by a side who are nowhere near one of the best in the division. Its scary to think what is going to happen when we come up against a good side, if we continue to put in such shameful performances.

Once again we have come away from Spotland thinking that we have been lucky to have got something out of the game. This one like the the last home game, could so easily have been lost. This time we was lucky to get a point.

Photo: Action Images

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