We were sensational, what a performance, we'll be in them playoffs in no time at all!! Simmo In! No-one need worry about our club, its in the best possible hands, give Simpson a chance!

Yeah right, whatever!

Dale went into the game today having made a couple of changes to the team, namely those of International status!  Paddy McCourt has been a revelation since his return and has been easily our best player.  Where was he today?  on the bench!  Injury prone Chris Beech came in for him

Lee McEvilly became the clubs very first full international player last season and went into the game today as joint top scorer this season with Paul Connor, not to mention him scoring 4 goals in our last 7 games.  Where was he today?  on the bench!  Clive Platt has said for a while now he wants away from the club and has had all sorts of rumours with several clubs and was preferred to Lee McEvilly. Baffling, simply baffling!!!

Onto the match then and Exeter got the better start of the 2 teams and it was the Grecians who had the first chance of the game when Sean Devine went close when he forced Matt Gilks to make a good save and turn it round the post for a corner.  This corner saw Exeter awarded a dubious penalty for an alleged shirt pull by on loan defender Lee Andrews.  I personally did NOT think it was a penalty but a few Rochdale fans I spoke to thought it was clear as crystal.  Anyway, the David Beckham wannabe, Justin Walker stepped up and eased the ball into the back of the net to put Exeter 1-0 up on the 15 minute mark.

Exeter went close again on 27 minutes when James Coppinger headed goal-wards only for Matt Gilks to tip over the bar but just a couple of minutes later it was Rochdale who got the break.  Justin Walker was accused of fouling Chris Beech in the box and although I couldn't see it myself, the Exeter fans when ballistic and many other reports suggest it was a very poor decision.  Nevertheless Paul Simpson stepped aside from his set piece duties to allow Paul Connor to send Kevin Miller in the Exeter net, the wrong way to even things up at 1-1 on the half hour mark.

The second half was unbelievable boring but Dale did manage to get a couple of decent chances in from Chris Beech who's long range effort went narrowly over the bar and Clive Platt had a very good chance that was saved by Miller.  Dale defender Gareth Griffiths left the pitch with around 20 minutes remaining after suffering an injury and he was replaced by Richard Jobson who in all fairness looked Dale's best defender while he was on.  Despite calls for Patrick McCourt to be brought on since around 65 minutes, he didn't actually appear until 83 minutes had gone despite being ready to come on for around 5 minutes.  He replaced Paul Simpson who didn't have the best of games and the introduction of the Irish wonderkid gave the game that bit of excitement as he basically took the micky as usual but his late introduction wasn't enough to give Dale the victory and the game ended 1-1.

Another poor performance, another poor team selection, another non-victory, another poor Dale following, another game where we created very little, another example of poor substitution timing.  Is it any wonder banners and protests are being mentioned?  I don't think so!  Our next game is Rushden & Diamonds away on Monday night, Triffic!!!

Simmo's comments on today's game included the fans being pleased and giving a good ovation.  Can those who were there explain that to me?  I am not prepared to stand this anymore, the banner mentioned on the radio and internet commentary will certainly be there on Monday night as well as a few others I suspect!

Simpson Out!

Ratings:

13.  Matthew Gilks 7 Made a couple of good saves and his kicking was good in most cases.  No chance with penalty

20.  Lee Duffy 5 Got caught out nearly every time down the right hand side when defending

22.  Lee Andrews 5 Never really noticed him to be honest except when he gave the penalty away

5.    Gareth Griffiths 6 Won a few headers but gave it away on occasions

26.  Simon Grand 6 Nearly at fault for a goal early doors but recovered and did ok for the rest of the game

10.  Matthew Doughty 5 Rarely got forward but when he did his crossing was awful

7.    David Flitcroft 5 Worst performance for a while, a lot of his passes were to no-one and was generally poor

8.    Chris Beech 7 Played well, showed some his class occasionally and went close with a long range effort in the second half. Didn't get injured either!

14.  Paul Simpson 5 Poor, his passing was more a case of lump it up front on most occasions with no success.

21.  Clive Platt 5 Despite being 6 foot 12 ish, he won almost nothing in the air and was poor on the whole

27.  Paul Connor 6 Denied the service but scored the equaliser and won me a fiver

Subs:  

24.  Richard Jobson 7 Solid when he came on and showed his experience is still useful

17.  Patrick McCourt 7 Livened up proceedings in the whole 7 minutes he was on but why the hell was he not on from the start??

Photo: Action Images

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