Rochdale returned to winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 win over Barry Hunter's struggling Rushden and Diamonds. It's now just 1 defeat in 15 games now for Dale as they look to push for the playoffs.

Dale got back to winning ways as they saw off Rushden & Diamonds at Spotland with a 2-0 victory.  Two goals in the second half from Ernie Cooksey and Grant Holt were enough to see off the struggling Irthlingborough side.  The victory has resulted in Dale moving up to 9th in the league with a game in hand over quite a few teams.

Steve Parkin decided to revert back to the familiar 4-3-3 system with Grant Holt being back for the game following his two match suspension but Gary Jones was absent through suspension after he picked up his 5th yellow card of the season.  The team was, Gilks in net, a back four of Evans, Griffiths, Heald and Goodall, a midfield three of Scott Warner, Jamie Clarke and Ernie Cooksey with Leo Bertos, Paul Tait and Grant Holt up front.  Following the inclusion of YTS player Gary Brown in the squad on Tuesday night for the Yeovil game, another YTS player was included in the squad for today's match as Ben Kitchen was rewarded for his good performances in the stiffs and he was joined on the bench by Danny Woodhall, Tony Gallimore, Daryl Burgess and Leighton McGivern.

The first half was a very poor affair with neither team playing very but Rushden managed to get the first shot on goal when Billy Sharp managed to get a shot on target after side stepping Griffiths but the shot was dealt with by Matt Gilks.

Dale began to get more and more into the game and Grant Holt went close with a header following an excellent cross from Alan Goodall and the home side went even closer when Holt then put Leo Bertos through for a chance but Leo took a second too long in shooting and Sean Connelly made a superb tackle to dispossess the Kiwi.

Rushden skipper Andy Burgess had Rushden's best chance of the half when he got past a couple of players before shooting from the edge of the box but Gilks did well and kept his effort out.

There were no real chances created by either team after that and the half eventually came to a close and you got the feeling that both teams would be on the end of a bollocking at half time and it seemed like Parkin's was the stronger as Dale came out a different team.

With ten minutes of the half gone, Rochdale took the lead through "The Flying Forehead" Ernie Cooksey.  Grant Holt made a surging run before laying the ball off to Ernest who then smashed it into the left hand corner of the net to make it 1-0 to the Dale!

Dale were playing much better than they did in the first half and were creating more and more chances and the next one went to a rather unlikely source.  Even Jangleberry couldn't moan when Scott Warner had a shot from distance which would have sailed in but for a superb save from Alan Blayney in the Rushden goal as he managed to tip it round the post.

Warner went very close again shortly after with another great effort from distance but this time it flew over the crossbar from about 20 yards.

With the game nearing it's conclusion, Dale doubled their lead and in doing so, put the game beyond the visitors.  A Jamie Clarke corner was met by Grant Holt running in and the prolific Dale striker headed past Blayney for his 20th goal of the season on 81 minutes.  A great header it was but you can see why Rushden are in trouble with marking like that, Holt was allowed to run in unmarked and was gifted a free header which he took full advantage of.  I do hope Mr Eriksson was watching because who the hell needs Jermaine Defoe and Wayne Rooney when Grant Holt is on the scene?!  Holt's goal made it 2-0 to the Dale and it was his 20th goal which is an awesome return in just 31 games this season.

Matt Gilks kept another clean sheet but he was made to work for it near the end of the game when a header from David Bell looked certain to go in but for a superb save by the Dale shot stopper who somehow managed to get a hand on it to push it onto the crossbar though it looked a little close to the line for my liking but nevermind!

Dale saw out rest of the game and ended the game comfortable winners.  Dale travel to Cheltenham next with another 3 points in their sights.

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 7 Made a couple of top saves and kept another clean sheet

Wayne Evans 7 Defended quite well again and looked solid

ALAN GOODALL 8 Very impressive from Goodall today and he gets my M.O.M.  Defended excellently and broke forward very well

Gareth Griffiths 7 Didn't miss a header as usual and made a couple of superb tackles

Greg Heald 7 Impressive game from Heald who was strong in the air and like Griff, made some excellent tackles

Jamie Clarke 7 Not the usual creative player today but he got stuck in a lot more and did quite well

Scott Warner 8 Very impressed with Scott today, he got stuck in well and had two great efforts on goal

Ernie Cooksey 7 Scored a belting goal to open the scoring and had a good game

Leo Bertos 7 Took a bit to get into the game but he looked very dangerous in the second half

Paul Tait 7 Good game for Taiters, he won headers and even started showboating at one point

Grant Holt 7 20 goals this season so far, scored one and set one up, enough said

Photo: Action Images

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