A welcome return to Dale for Steve Parkin was made a whole lot better by picking up 3 points in his first game as manager as Rochdale beat Torquay 1-0 at Spotland. Match report and player ratings are now online.

Steve Parkin's first game back as manager ended in victory over Torquay United as the home side ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a Super Kevin Townson penalty after 35 minutes but despite an improved performance from Dale, the match was far from one sided and Dale were made to work very hard for their 8th win of the season.

There were a couple of changes made to the team for Parkin's first game as Daryl Burgess replaced Simon Grand after returning from injury and Kevin Townson replaced Andy Bishop in the starting 11 with Bishop taking up his place on the bench.  There was no place for Patrick McCourt in the squad for reasons unknown at present.  The Rochdale team was Edwards in net, Evans at right back, Simpkins at left back, Griffiths and Burgess at centre back.  Leo Bertos was on the right wing with Matt Doughty on the left, Chris Beech and Sean McClare remained the central midfield partnership with Kevin Townson partnering Paul Connor up front.  The substitutes bench consisted of Matt Gilks, Simon Grand, Scott Warner, Kevin Donovan and Andy Bishop.

Torquay certainly had the best of the opening few minutes and managed to create 2 great chances with just 8 minutes of the clock gone.  The first chance came from the big striker Martin Gritton whose low shot was well saved by Neil Edwards.  It was Gritton who had an even better chance just a minute or so later when he managed to get a header in that rattled the crossbar when he could have done better.

Dale did manage to create an opportunity as well and it fell to Paul Connor who did well to get away from his marker and got a shot in on goal but it went high and wide of the far post.

The home side had a penalty appeal turned down after 15 minutes when Chris Beech was fouled but the referee waved play on much to the anger of the home fans.

Torquay could have got their noses in front on 20 minutes when Kevin Hill when his shot was saved easily by Edwards after he was put in by David Graham.

Rochdale got very lucky 5 minutes later when a corner was not dealt with by Dale and Sean McClare had to clear off the line with a very good header.

The game totally changed on 35 minutes and the home side took full advantage.  It was unclear to see what the penalty was for from the Sandy Lane but it must have been a push on one of the Dale players and the referee pointed to the spot.  Kevin Townson stepped up like he did in the last game and scored to put Rochdale 1-0 up.

The goal had a great effect for Dale and they pushed to take control of the game and they created more chances before the half time interval and Kevin Townson had a shot blocked to his disappointment and then some good work from Matt Doughty resulted in him putting a great cross in that Townson just couldn't reach.

Rochdale went in 1-0 up at half time in what was a very scrappy half that could have gone either way.  The half time break saw Dale fans cheering as the loud speaker read out that Graham Barrow's bury were losing 2-0 and our programme waving ginger haired loud amateur referee was far from happy when his whole burger was knocked out of his hands much to his anger and I don't think he found it funny when one fan turned round and said "just give it a wipe!"

The 2nd half saw Rochdale come out a better side and they battled for the remainder of the game and played some very impressive football.

Leo Bertos was in the thick of the action and Torquay were seriously struggling to cope with him as he ran at them and one of his great runs ended prematurely when he was brought down by Hill who was booked for the challenge and just minutes later, his skill saw him skin the defender before putting in a good cross that found it's way to Paul Connor from the head of McClare but Connor's shot went just over the bar.

Steve Parkin made his first change of the game with 75 minutes gone when Andy Bishop replaced Paul Connor

Torquay did get a chance to equalise when a long range effort was saved after a very odd and difficult bounce which Edwards did well to keep out despite it coming straight at him.

Kevin Townson nearly doubled his tally for the afternoon when some great work by Andy Bishop saw him skip past 1 defender and get a good cross in from the 6 yard box but it was just too far behind Townson for him to make contact.

Matt Hockley had a shot that went wide for Torquay very late on as Dale tried to hang on to their 1-0 lead but then Leo Bertos went up the other end after picking the ball up on the half way line and he drove forward but his shot was also wide albeit not by much at all.

Neil Edwards was called into action in stoppage time when he saved very well from a Kevin Hill effort that I thought was heading straight in.

Thanks to some great late defending Dale managed to hang on to get the 3 points against an impressive Torquay side who could say they were hard done by but nevertheless Dale bounce back up to 16th in the league overtaking bury. 

Parkin is back!

Player ratings:

Neil Edwards 7 Made a couple of very good saves to prevent Torquay getting back in the game

Wayne Evans 7 Took his fair share of knocks but was still solid and his crossing was impressive

Michael Simpkins 7 Another good game for Simpkins, some great passes down the line and defended well also

Daryl Burgess 6 Put some very good tackles in but struggled in the air.  Looked injured in the first half

Gareth Griffiths 7 Won all of his headers and defended well on most occasions although made one mistake.

LEO BERTOS 8 Superb.  MOM by a mile.  He skinned Torquay for a large part of the game and seems to like playing them.

Matt Doughty 7 Decent game for Buzz, some of his deliveries into the box were good and he linked up with Simpkins well.

Chris Beech 6 Got stuck in and did OK but still a few passes going wayward.

Sean McClare 7 Did well today, his passing was very good and he even had 2 shots!

Paul Connor 7 Looked improved and nearly scored twice.  Held the ball up well and won some good flick-on's

Kevin Townson 7 Very good game for Super Kev and he scored again.  Caused problems all game.

Subs:  

Andy Bishop 7 Did very well when he came on and very nearly created a chance for Townson.

Kevin Donovan 6 Not on long enough to have an impact

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls