I apologise for the lateness of it but here is the match report and player ratings from the Yeovil match on Tuesday night. Dale managed to secure a 2-2 away at the league leaders.

Rochdale continued their drawing streak with a 2-2 draw away at league leaders Yeovil Town.  Dale led the game twice but Yeovil showed why they are top of the league and got a point from the game which could easily have been three.

Steve Parkin changed the successful 4-3-3 formation for the game as he was without Grant Holt who was serving the second of his two match suspension and Tai Atieno's loan deal had finished leaving him with just Paul Tait, Leo Bertos, Leighton McGivern and Kevin Townson as the only available forwards but Kevin Townson was still not included in the squad so a 4-5-1 was used.  Gilks was in net, Evans at right back, Gallimore at left back with Griffiths and Heald at centre back.  Leo Bertos was on the right wing with Alan Goodall on the left wing.  Scott Warner, Gary Jones and Jamie Clarke were in the centre of midfield with Paul Tait operating up front on his own.  The bench consisted of Danny Woodhall, Daryl Burgess, Gary Brown, Ernie Cooksey and Leighton McGivern.

Yeovil started the game very confidently and looked dangerous, even in the early stages but Rochdale took a surprise lead on 8 minutes through Alan Goodall.  He received the ball from Gary Jones and he somehow managed to get past the defender and I think he even surprised himself with it but nevertheless he slotted the ball past Weale to make it 1-0 Dale.

About 10 minutes later, Tony Gallimore nearly doubled Dale's lead with a powerful freekick that went over the bar by a matter of inches from what looked to be about 35 yards.

Yeovil nearly levelled things through Latvian International Stolcers when he got the ball in the box in a great position but an awesome tackle from Wayne Evans at the last minute stopped him making the most of his chance.

Yeovil were getting into the game much more and had it not been for superb defending and excellent goalkeeping, they would have scored earlier than they did.  The equaliser looked to be on the cards and there was only the post stopping it when Tarachulski headed against the upright after they showed no sportsmanship at all by playing on the game when we kicked the ball out to allow treatment.

With just a minute to go before half time, Yeovil once again nearly scored, this time it was Phil Jevons with the opportunity but Gilks saved well to keep the Dale 1-0 up going into half time.

Yeovil decided they weren't going to be beaten and to help their target, they brought on two subs for the second half.  Yeovil came out and bossed the game for the early stages of the half with Matt Gilks having to pull off some superb saves, the best of which saw him tip over a close range header when it seemed certain to be going in.

Despite their best efforts in the game, the Dale defence couldn't stop the equaliser on 55 minutes when Tarachulski won a good header at the back post and headed into the far corner leaving Gilks with no chance to make it 1-1.

Yeovil were in the mood and the onslaught continued with only the woodwork and Gilks keeping the scores level!

That said, the next chance fell to Dale and guess what, we went ahead again!! Dale broke with Gary Jones and he played a superb through ball for Leo Bertos to run onto and the Kiwi finished it brilliantly into the far bottom corner to make it 2-1.

It looked as though Dale were going to record a superb double of the league leaders but on 84 minutes, Wayne Evans gave away a penalty when he clearly tripped Tarachulski and Lee Johnson stepped up to take it and he scored to make it 2-2.

Johnson nearly made it 3-2 with a powerful long range effort but another superb Gilks save kept it out and Dale managed to hold onto the draw which saw us climb to 10th in the league.

Player Ratings:

MATT GILKS 8 Superb, man of the match for me, some top class saves

Wayne Evans 7 Positional sense was lacking at times but made some superb tackles and blocks

Tony Gallimore 7 Had a good game I thought, no mistakes and his passing was very good

Gareth Griffiths 7 Defended solidly as usual winning everything in the air despite being up against Tarachulski!

Greg Heald 7 Defended well I thought for the most part

Leo Bertos 7 Scored a very good goal and looked threatening when Dale were allowed time to play

Alan Goodall 7 Scored his first goal for the club and played well in an unfamiliar left wing role

Jamie Clarke 7 Reacted extremely well to being dropped, was very impressive on the ball and his passing was excellent

Scott Warner 7 Battled very well and again did well I thought

Gary Jones 7 Looked a lot better than the Chester game.  Full of running and set up Bertos' goal very well

Paul Tait 7 Even Tait had a good game I thought!  Held the ball up well and looked good on the ball, still needs to score more though!

Subs:  

Ernie Cooksey 7 Wasn't allowed to attack as much as he would have wanted but did well regardless

Leighton McGivern 6 Not on long enough to have an impact

Daryl Burgess 6 Same as McGivern

Photo: Action Images

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