Steve Parkin suffered his first defeat in his 2nd spell as Rochdale lost 1-0 away at Yeovil though an improved 2nd half nearly resulted in us taking something from the game. Match report online now with player ratings.

Rochdale slipped to 18th place after defeat to the hands of high flyers Yeovil Town at Huish Park thanks to a Gavin Williams goal after 12 minutes of the game gone.

Before embarking on several games of darts in the pub, one of our minibus members spotted the Mayor leaving us to look around for where the photographers were. 

While in the pub, I was rather annoyed at the price of a game of pool which round my area, costs a mere 20p so the look of horror on my face when it said "£1 per game" on the side of the table was, I think, understandable and we opted for the darts instead.  Having said this, the admission prices were reasonable though that didn't stop us all getting in for students, including our 30 year old teacher.

Steve Parkin brought a big change to the squad and it was one that was familiar in his last spell where we play 4-5-1 away from home and play a lone target man and to do this Connor was chosen as the lone striker, leaving Townson on the substitutes bench and bringing Scott Warner into the starting 11 for the first time this season.  Leo Bertos is away on international duty with New Zealand for a few weeks meaning Kevin Donovan took his place in the team as expected and Steve Parkin's first signing, on loan Martin Pemberton was drafted into left back to cover for the suspended Michael Simpkins.  The Dale team was, Edwards in net, Evans at right back, Pemberton at left back, Burgess and Griffiths in the middle.  The midfield 5 consisted of Kevin Donovan on the right, Matt Doughty on the left and a central midfield 3 of Scott Warner, Chris Beech and Sean McClare with Paul Connor up front.  The bench consisted of Gilks, Grand, McCourt, Bishop and Super Kevin Townson.

The referee came under a lot of criticism during the match from both sets of supporters and very early on it was clear he was very poor.  The first incident saw Matt Doughty totally shoved off the ball by the Harry Kewell fouling, Portuguese defender Hugo Rodrigues. 

The home side seemed to start the game off better but Dale created a half chance when Matt Doughty headed weakly into Weale's hands from an Evans cross.

Yeovil could have taken the lead on 10 minutes when Lee Elam got his cross in from the right wing and Nick Crittenden met it but the ball could only find the side netting to the relief of the Dale fans and no doubt Neil Edwards.

It wasn't long before Yeovil took the lead, just a minute in fact.  Gavin Williams picked up a long pass from Lockwood and his very weak, miss-hit shot found it's way past Edwards and into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.

Steve Parkin's defensive formation was clearly not working and was not going to and he made a change after about 20 minutes which saw Chris Beech sacrificed for Super Kevin Townson and Dale went back to 4-4-2 which they looked much more comfortable with.

With 7 minutes of the half to go, Yeovil could have doubled their lead when Kevin Gall picked the ball and went to shoot but Evans put in a very good block and Williams nearly doubled his tally when his shot went wide when he picked the ball up from the corner but his shot was wide.

Dale managed to keep the score down to just 1-0 going into half time and with Yeovil looking a good side and well worth the one goal advantage.

The game became much more even with both teams enjoying some good football although there was no end product for either team.

Williams was looking dangerous again and nearly scored when he smashed a shot wide of Taff's net.

Soon after, Super Kevin Townson nearly got an equaliser for Dale when he spotted the keeper off his line and hooked the ball goalwards which I thought was heading in only for the cross bar to deny the young scouser from scoring his 11th goal of the season.

The referee continued to annoy both sets of fans, making some awful decisions but he wasn't helped by his awful linesman either who decided Paul Connor was offside despite being about 5 yards onside when he made his run.

The unfit Patrick McCourt came on for Rochdale despite it being said he was 7-10 days before he would be involved due to his poor fitness and stamina but nevertheless, he came on to replace the new loan player Pemberton with Matt Doughty moving to left back and McCourt going on the left wing and the first touch he had was to tackle the Yeovil winger and totally and utterly skin 4 players before laying it wide to Doughty whose cross didn't result in a chance.

Just a few minutes later, Steve Parkin made his final substitution of the game when Andy Bishop was brought on to replace the ineffective Paul Connor.

Dale continued to show they could be worthy of a point at least and a good move down the right with McClare and Donovan resulted in the new recruit skinning 2 players but ran out of options with all Dale players marked and the chance fizzled out.

With 10 minutes left, Kevin Townson went close again when he shot towards goal but his shot was saved by Weale.

Yeovil substitute Stansfield went close late on but Neil Edwards did very well to block the effort and keep their lead down to a minimum. 

The game ended 1-0 to Yeovil but an improved 2nd half performance from Dale nearly saw them get back into the game against a good Yeovil side and nearly get something out of the game. 

Bristol Rovers are next up for Dale at Spotland on Saturday and Dale in a very important game which we must get something out of to get out of the relegation battle ASAP.

Player Ratings:

Neil Edwards 7 Made a few good saves, not sure about the goal though, might have been able to save it.

Wayne Evans 6 Made some decent blocks but his distribution lets him down a little

Martin Pemberton 6 Ok debut, some nice passing but not really noticed often

Daryl Burgess 5 Quite poor from Burgess who is rapidly going down in my opinion of him.  Gives away far too many free kicks by mistiming headers.  Very slow also.

Gareth Griffiths 6 Not too bad, bar a couple of poor touches resulting in mistakes.  Couldn't be a threat at set pieces with the 12 foot Rodrigues marking him but won several defensive headers.

Kevin Donovan 6 A few decent touches but not much more.

Matt Doughty 6 Tried to get forward as much as possible but was overall quite ineffective.

Scott Warner 6 Poor first half I thought but was much improved in the second half with some good passing.

Chris Beech 6 Only on 23 minutes of the first half but wasn't over impressive

Sean McClare 7 Played quite well.  Seemed to be more effective when out wide for some reason.

Paul Connor 6 Ineffective up front on his own and not much better when Kev came on.  Not playing the best recently.

Subs:  

KEVIN TOWNSON 7 M.O.M for me.  Nearly scored a couple of times with a superb effort hitting the bar.  We certainly look like scoring with him in the team!

Patrick McCourt 7 His first touch was a tackle that led to a fantastic run but did look very tired very quickly.  A fit Paddy is an exciting prospect to say the least!

Andy Bishop 6 Not too bad by Bish and with Connor's recent outings, he must be considered to start in my view.

Photo: Action Images

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