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Report: Stoke 2 Dale 1
Report: Stoke 2 Dale 1
Monday, 1st Jan 2001 08:31 by Chaff

Rochdale travelled to the impressive Britannia Stadium as they took on Stoke in the first round of the Carling Cup after the game was delayed for a week and a home tie against Gillingham was at stake. Match report and player ratings are now online

Dale went into their Carling Cup first round tie with Stoke having already been put into the hat for the second round with the winner of tonight getting Gillingham at home.  That was the nearest we thought we would get as most predictions had us down for a good stuffing tonight against the top of the first division but it wasn't quite as easy as that.

Dale went into the game with the same team that played poorly at Bristol Rovers with Gilksy in net, Evans and Simpkins as full backs, Grand and Burgess in the centre of defence, Bertos and Doughty on the wings, McClare and Beech in the centre of midfield with Shuker and Connor up front.

Stoke started the game off well and it only took them 13 minutes to break the deadlock when Chris Iwelumo headed home a Wayne Thomas cross despite Gilks getting good contact on the ball before it went in and my personal thoughts were that it was going to be a rather long night as first expected and to be honest we found the first half quite tough going with the same problems occurring where we lacked a final ball too often and whenever crosses came in, no-one was seen in the box to get on the end of them.  We seemed to lack a lot of confidence but Burgess and Grand defended very well and kept Stoke out as they continued to put pressure on.

The first half wasn't totally Stoke all over us as Dale did create a couple of decent chances, Chris Shuker went very close with a header and both Shuker and McClare had long range efforts that went wide.

The second half came and Alan Buckley made 2 half time changes bringing off Leo Bertos who looked ok to begin with but was anonymous for most of the first half and he was replaced by Super Kevin Townson and Chris Beech was replaced by Robert Betts and Chris Shuker took Bertos' place on the right wing with Kev going up front with Connor.

These changes proved to be the catalyst for Dale's second half performance which was easily the best football we have seen under Buckley thus far and it was the sub Kevin Townson who brought about Dale's first excellent chance of the half when he headed goal wards only for ex Chelski keeper Ed De Goey to pull off a very good diving stop after a lovely ball in from Matt Doughty.  Townson went close again a few minutes later when his header was once again well saved by Ed De Goey.

Patrick McCourt came on with just under 20 minutes to go as he replaced Matthew Doughty who received an excellent reception after having a rather impressive game and making a big effort to keep Paddy behind him in the pecking order.

Dale continued to push hard for the equaliser and were finally rewarded on 75 minutes when Connor latched onto a poor header by Stoke defender Clarke and he crossed superbly for Kevin Townson to head home from close range and get what he fully deserved.  The celebrations from Super Kev said it all and I think every Dale supporter will expect him to start on Saturday and to be quite honest it really is a must!

Dale ran the show and with the crowd fully behind them and in fine voice, they continued to push and really looked like they would be the more likely to snatch the victory but unfortunately that's not quite how it happened.  A misplaced pass by Sean McClare was capitalised on by Stoke in injury time and they caught Dale on the counter attack and Commons got the ball and took it forward and his shot was pushed onto the post by Matthew Gilks but unfortunately Marc Goodfellow pounced on the rebound and slotted it home to the relief of the Stoke fans and no doubt the management!

A very good performance from Rochdale, second half especially and this performance MUST be taken into the next game which we failed to do last season when we had a decent performance in the Cup.  Kevin Townson and Robert Betts were very impressive and Patrick McCourt did well when he came on also so my personal team for Saturday would be the team that started the 2nd half with Paddy to come on for a cameo role with 20 minutes or so to go.

Optimism has been restored for now!

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 6 Could have saved the first goal possibly

Wayne Evans 7 Played well, just wish he was a bit quicker, some great tackles

Michael Simpkins 6 Improved but not outstanding.  Passing was a little better and his crossing was good

Simon Grand 7 Solid at the back with Burgess and played well

Daryl Burgess 7 Played very well, made some excellent tackles and clearances to keep Stoke at bay

Leo Bertos 6 Ok for the first 10 minutes or so but anonymous from then and rightly replaced at half time

Matt Doughty 7 Played well, caused problems down the left, got forward and crossed well.  Still in front of Paddy for me

Sean McClare 6 Good first touch but some of his passes were cut out too easily

Chris Beech 6 Didn't play too badly but was brought off at half time and it paid off

Chris Shuker 6 Struggled to beat the defence but he would have been the one they would be on the look out for and the defence did well

Paul Connor 7 Impressive, great cross for Townson but he held the ball up well and looked dangerous

Subs:  

Kevin Townson 8 Superb, the boy is back and must start

Robert Betts 7 Impressive, got stuck in and looked very good passing the ball.

Patrick McCourt 7 Good trickery and he caused problems but I think Matt Doughty will keep his place.

Photo: Action Images



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