Dale were held to a draw at a cold Bootham Crescent. A poor game was made even worse by the referee, as Dale struggled to really get anywhere against a poor York side.

Its hard to look past the poor officiating which took place tonight but I will try my best, and hopefully Cullenwatch will have a field day. Dale went into the match without Steve Banks and Paddy McCourt. Matt Gilkes was in net and Dave Flitcroft was recalled to the side. Yet again there was no place on the bench for Matt Doughty.

The first half in truth was very poor and Dale created very little of note. York were the better side and had a number of opportunities. Matt Gilkes pulled off a good save from a close range effort, just moments before the first bit of controversy occured.

The ball broke in the Dale box and Dave Flitcroft seemingly toed the ball away from a corner whilst challenging the York attacker. There was no claims from anyone in the ground for a penalty, not even the York players appealed. However for some reason Danson pointed to the spot and left the Dale fans bemused as to why.

Justice however was done and Matt Gilkes pulled off a fine save to stop the penalty much to the delight of the traveling faithful. The worst bit of news from the first half though without doubt was when Graeme Atkinson limped off with an injury, to be replaced by Keiron Durkan.

The second was a much better affair with both sides going close on a number of occasions. Gilkes again pulled off some good saves to deny the home side. It wasn't really until the next bit of controversy that Dale really woke up though.

Clive Platt was sent off for a what can only be described as a mistimed tackle. To be fair he was nowhere near the ball, and it was definitely a free-kick. Most people were expecting a yellow for his tackle, but out of nowhere Danson produced a red. Maybe he was influenced by the York bench who jumped up to make things look even worse.

This seemed to shake Dale up and the introduction of Paul Connor and Paul Ware seemed to breathe new life into Dale. We went close on a number of opportunities. Townson beat a couple of men before chipped the keeper only to see the ball go agonisingly wide. A Paul Ware cross landed on top of the net also, and it looked like it was going to be one of those nights.

There was still time for more controversy though as deep into stoppage time, Dale were denied what looked like a certain penalty. In fact we had two claims in the space of 10 seconds. Kev Townson broke into the box and was having his shirt ripped off his back. No penalty. He then rounded the keeper and was brought down. Whether the keeper made contact with the ball or not is debatable, the ball squirmed away from him as he brought Kev down. Once again, no penalty.

All in all it was not a bad performance from Dale. We battled well for a lot of things but once again there wasn't that much created. We did seem to do better when Ware came on though, and although Connor was not at his best we seemed to find him well and he did link up well with Kev. Not too much to be disappointed about really, we could of been better, especially against such poor opposition, but with such bad refereeing we'll settle for the point.

Photo: Action Images

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