Rochdale beat Oxford United 2-1 to go through to round two of the FA Cup. It gave us a taster of what we can expect in the league encounter next week at the Kassam. Full match report and player ratings are online.

Rochdale threw their name in the hat for the second round of the FA Cup with an impressive 2-1 victory over fellow League 2 side Oxford United at Spotland.  Another two goals for leading scorer Grant Holt were enough to see off Graham Rix's men who took the lead in the first half thanks to Lee Bradbury.

Steve Parkin decided to stick with the 4-3-3 formation that had led to Dale's last two league victories against Macclesfield and Cambridge.  There was a slight change in the team selection with Daryl Burgess being suspended for the game following his red card against Cambridge and Tony Gallimore replaced him in the centre of defence.  The rest of the team was the same with Matt Gilks in net, a back four of Wayne Evans, Alan Goodall, Tony Gallimore and Gareth Griffiths.  We had a midfield of Ernie Cooksey, Jamie Clarke and skipper Gary Jones with Paul Tait and Taiwo Atieno up front with the ever impressive Grant Holt.  Neil Edwards, Scott Warner, Ashley Probets, Leo Bertos and Leighton McGivern were on the bench for the game.

Rochdale got off to a decent start and could have had a goal within the first few minutes when a Jamie Clarke delivery was met by Taiwo Atieno but his header went wide of the mark.

Despite Dale playing well for the opening twenty minutes, Oxford took the lead through Lee Bradbury.  A long ball from the Oxford defence was taken advantage of by Bradbury who got past the defence and Gilks came out of his goal to claim it but missed it leaving Bradbury with an open net and he scored with ease to make it 1-0 to Oxford.

Less than five minutes later, Dale should have been level.  Another cross by Clarke was met by Atieno whose initial effort was well saved and the follow up was blocked as well and the Oxford maintained the one goal advantage.

Dale did get the equaliser they deserved with about ten minutes to go before half time.  Alan Goodall was having a good game down the left and he put in a good cross that Grant Holt met and the ball somehow looped in over the keeper and into the far corner when we all thought it was over the bar.  A bizarre event but nonetheless, Dale were levelled things at 1-1 thanks to Holt's eleventh goal of the season.

The half time whistle was blown and the score was 1-1. 

The aim for the second half was to continue the good performance of the first half and to be fair, we did just that.

Dale's goalscorer had another chance to score after doing brilliantly to turn his marker but his effort lacked the power and was no problem for the keeper.

What I'm about to say may come as a shock but Leo Bertos replaced an "Impressive!" Paul Tait with twenty minutes to play.  I was half expecting Microsoft Word to put a red line under the word impressive with it being next to the words Paul Tait!  In truth, Tait looked a handful today and worked very hard.  His touch was good, he won numerous headers and it really did look like a different player than what we have seen.

Shortly after that and Dale really should have been 2-1 up but it wasn't to be.  Holt had the first shot which was saved by Tardif but the ball came out and a cross was put in which was punched clear but only as far as Bertos who headed the ball back and it ended up with Goodall shooting but Tardif saved again.

Taiwo Atieno made way for Leighton McGivern after not having the best of games but was still a handful.

With full time almost upon us and a long away trip on a cold Wednesday night looking likely, Dale made sure their name was in the hat for the next round of the cup when Grant Holt bagged his twelfth goal of the season which equals Kevin Townson's total for last season.  Clarke again provided the service, Bertos headed the ball across the goal and Holt went to retrieve the ball at the back post and he turned and drove the ball past Tardif and into the far corner and the Dale fans went mad and the game finished 2-1 to Dale.

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 6 Looked at fault for their goal but otherwise did alright

Wayne Evans 7 Another good performance from Evo

ALAN GOODALL 9 Superb performance from Goodall and my M.O.M.  His crossing was good for the most part and his defensive skills were excellent.

Tony Gallimore 7 Slotted in well to the centre of defence

Gareth Griffiths 8 Excellent game again for Griffiths.  Won everything in the air and made loads of good tackles.

Jamie Clarke 8 Created most Dale attacks and he did excellently all game. 

Ernie Cooksey 7 Did well I thought, he broke forward often and worked very hard

Gary Jones 7 Another good game for Jones who gave it his all as usual

Taiwo Atieno 6 Was a handful but nothing more. 

Paul Tait 7 He seems to do better in cup competitions than the league!

Grant Holt 9 Another 2 goals for Holty and a top class performance again

Subs:  

Leo Bertos 7 Very lively when he came on and is showing more signs of the Bertos we saw last season

Leighton McGivern 7 Not on too long but worked hard and did well

Ashley Probets 6 Not on long enough to have an impact

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls