Dale managed to seal their trip to Preston and a place in the 3rd round of the FA Cup at the second attempt against Bristol Rovers. A late goal from substitute Paddy McCourt being the decisive one in a tight affair.

On a night where the performance mattered very little, and the result was all important, Dale slipped back into their old ways, and put on a show much like it has been all season really. In all honesty it was a poor game between two poor sides on the night.

Dale once again named an unchanged team not surprisingly, as they hoped for the same result as we had produced against league leaders Hartlepool just a couple of days earlier.

Bristol Rovers started lively and soon took the lead. A deep cross was headed goal-wards, it flew towards the top corner, and the Dale man on the post could only head the ball upwards into the roof of the net.

Doom and gloom set in once again, and it looked bleak for a while. Trusty Dale though got their reward and way back into the game, from you guessed it, a set-piece! Clive Platt rose to head home, the defender on the line once again only being able to head the ball into the roof of the net in an attempt to keep it out.

Dale thought they had taken the lead from a set piece a few moments later. The ball was headed home at the back post, but for some unknown reason offside was given against Dale. (It was definitely given for offside, so no doubts on that decision). However Rovers had a man on the post, so bit of a strange decision.

The second half saw Dale come out strongly, and they soon took the lead. Lee McEvilly nodded a cross down for Paul Connor and he smashed the ball into the corner of the net, much like the goal he scored at Torquay actually.

We were home and dry surely? A trip to Preston was now looking likely. Dale had other ideas and decided to make life hard for themselves. Wayne Evans completely cocked up at the back and let Tait in who rounded Taffy and stroked the ball into the empty net.

With 15 minutes remaining it was time for a substitution. Paddy McCourt came on to replace the ever dangerous Paul Connor. Why in the hell did he go off?! Granted looking back you can say that the changed worked as Paddy scored the winner, but why take your top scorer off when you are in search of a winning goal?! Maybe he was injured?!

With just 10 minutes left Paddy picked the ball up inside the Rovers half, and ran at goal, he jinked a couple of times, caused confusion before curling the ball expertly into the bottom corner of the net.

And that was that really, the game seemingly fizzled out. Rovers had lost their confidence and Dale were quite content to sit back on the lead. After almost 5 minutes of injury time it was game over and Dale were into the 3rd round and a trip to Preston.

Deserved win? Well it really could have gone either way. In the end we had that little bit extra just to sneak through. Not the best of performances though, but I'm sure we would all have settled for the result instead of the performance in this game. Up The Dale.

Photo: Action Images

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