Dale took three points from Griffin Park as they beat Brentford 2-1 to make it four wins out of four and take us just two points from the top of the league.  Match report now online.

Dale travelled down to London for the first of two capital based away games in a week and left with all three points.  Rochdale’s track record in London isn’t very good and with us playing a team that has been up near the top of the table for the majority of the season so far, I’d have definitely taken a point before the game.  I probably won’t have been the only one either. 

Keith Hill made just one change from the side that beat Notts County away on Tuesday night in that Will Buckley came into the team for Joey Thompson.  Dale lined up with Sammy Russell in goal, a back four of Scott Wiseman, Tom Kennedy, Rory McArdle and Nathan Stanton, a midfield of Will Buckley, Adam Rundle, Ciaran Toner and Gary Jones with Chris Dagnall and Lee Thorpe up front.  On the bench were James Spencer, Marcus Holness, Joey Thompson, Clark Keltie and Adam Le Fondre. 

The conditions meant that the game was always going to be a tough battle with very little fast flowing, good football on show but it was Rochdale who, for the most part, looked the better side although both sides had their fair share of chances. 

Former Dale player Glen Poole manager to fire well wide early on for the home side which was followed shortly after by Chris Dagnall who forced Hamer in the Brentford net into making a good save. 

Will Buckley was proving again, why he’s being tracked by Premiership sides as he was causing problems for the Bees’ full backs every time he got the ball.  One such time saw him go on a run with the ball before shooting narrowly over the bar from the edge of the box. 

Dale continued to push forward and Dagnall got on the end of a Scott Wiseman cross but the cross was just behind Daggers and his header looped over the bar as a result. 

A deserved opener for the visitors arrived with about half an hour gone.  As usual, I came out with my “We’ll never score from this, it’s a corner!” just as Rory McArdle powered a great header past Hamer from TK’s corner!  That’s the first corner we’ve scored from since Wembley and it was that boy McArdle then as well! 

The lead was doubled just ten minutes later when Will Buckley picked the ball up, cut inside the box and side footed the ball brilliantly into the far corner for his 6^th goal of the season making him joint top scorer for Dale this season with Daggers. 

He was obviously trying to impress the “Sandy Click” who have come up with a new song for the young winger which is actually good compared to the rubbish they’ve come up with so far this season! 

At that point I never doubted we’d be leaving with all three points and knew that this would be a massive three points at that as we go into a two week break from the league.

It was obvious that Brentford were going to come out all guns blazing for the second half and they made two changes for the second half in a Jose Mourinho stylee.The changes worked briefly as Brentford came out and looked dangerous.   

It wasn’t long after the break before the home side had clawed one back, just five minutes in fact.  Dale completely failed to defend a free kick and the ball fell to Glenn Poole who crossed for Dean Bowditch, on loan from Ipswich, to head past Russell for a debut goal. 

Brentford couldn’t follow that up though and only had a couple of chances which were dealt with. Adam Le Fondre replaced Chris Dagnall midway through the second half to give the Brentford defence something new to think about. 

The second half was basically about Dale soaking up a bit of pressure and we were found hanging on a bit at the end with Dale bringing on Joey Thompson for Will Buckley to waste a bit of time and eventually the referee blew for full time.   

A top notch result to make it four wins on the bounce for Rochdale and it makes the league table a lot better to look at with Dale sitting inside the playoff places just two points off the top of the table. 

Dale have two cup games up next as they travel to Scunthorpe on Tuesday for the silly painting by numbers cup and then to Barnet for the first round of the FA Cup.

Photo: Action Images

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