Rochdale lost their first home match of the season against John Gorman's Wycombe Wanderers 2-1. A full match report and player ratings are now online.

Rochdale suffered their first defeat of the season against a very impressive Wycombe Wanderers side at Spotland as the Chairboys came out 2-1 winners.

Rochdale started with the same team that beat Shrewsbury Town on Saturday after Gareth Griffiths came through a fitness test to be able to play.  Ernie Cooksey was still missing with a knee injury from what we hear.  Matt Gilks was in net with Jamie Clarke, Tony Gallimore, Gareth Griffiths and Jon Boardman in defence.  Lee Cartwright, Tommy Jaszczun, Neil Brisco and Gary Jones were in midfield with Grant Holt and Rickie Lambert up front.  There was a change in personnel on the bench as Rory McArdle replace Ben Kitchen as substitute given Gareth Griffiths' as backup for Griff if needed.  He joined Danny Woodhall, Alan Goodall, Scott Warner and Blair Sturrock on the bench.

Wycombe started the game excellently and nearly went ahead with less than five minutes played.  Stefan Oakes had a crack from the edge of the box which cleared the crossbar by what looked like about an inch maximum!

The visitors took the lead just after the five minute mark when some awful defending cost Rochdale big time.  Kevin Betsy, who Steve Parkin tried to sign for Rochdale in his first spell and later did sign for Barnsley, absolutely skinned Tony Gallimore and Galli brought him down by trying to wrestle him to the ground.  The resulting free kick was wide on the left and was swung in towards the impressive Mike Williamson who got away from Jon Boardman and Griffiths far too easily and poked the ball past Gilks at the back post to make it 1-0 to Wycombe.

Rochdale didn't let it get them down and they came back and created chances.  Rickie Lambert could have got on the scoresheet early on when he shot from the edge of the box but Talia made a low save and hung onto the ball.

Grant Holt was next on the list to have a chance and I thought at the time he should have done better.  A good cross was swung in by Tommy Jaszczun and Holt got up to head but he could only direct his header wide of the post.

Jon Boardman went the closest for Dale when he too got a header in at the back post which unfortunately for the Dale crowd, went out of play via the outside of the post.

Frank Talia made a good save from Rochdale's star man Grant Holt shortly after as Holt reacted well to a Lambert header.  He controlled a bouncing ball, flicked it over the defender in a Gascoigne stylee and smashed it goalwards but Talia pulled off a good save to keep him out.

All this was before the half hour mark and with twenty three minutes gone, Wycombe made it 2-0.  A cross came from the right wing again and Matt Bloomfield took advantage of more shocking marking from Dale and some indecision from Gilks to head the ball into the far corner at the back post. 

Rochdale continued to press in search of goals and Neil Brisco, Dale's forgotten man last season, swung a fine cross into Holt who headed wide of the post.

The first half ended and it wasn't a pleasant scoreline for the majority of the 2755 inside Spotland.

The second half was a totally different story, Dale absolutely bossed it from start to finish but could only muster the one goal.

Grant Holt was working hard to get a goal but luck wasn't on his side.  A lovely move resulted in Holt being put through one on one with the goalkeeper but just as he was about to hit the trigger, Danny Senda made a fantastic tackle to prevent Holty from scoring.

Neil Brisco had a couple of efforts on goal, both of which though ended up high into the Sandy Lane.

Rickie Lambert had been quiet again and was substituted by Steve Parkin and replaced by Rochdale's newest addition, Blair Sturrock.  Alan Goodall was also brought on in the place of Tommy Jaszczun.

Holt went close again soon after when he got the better of his marker and struck a good volley goalwards from a tight angle but his effort flew past the far post.

Rochdale were given a lifeline with eleven minutes left.  Substitute Blair Sturrock was giving the defence something to seriously think about and he managed to turn in the box and went down in the box and a penalty was given.  It looked a dubious decision to me as Sturrock seemed to slip on the ball at the same time as the defender went towards him but I wasn't complaining.  Gary Jones stepped up to take it and slotted it away into the bottom corner sending Jenna Talia in the Wycombe goal the wrong way and it was 2-1 to Wycombe with enough time to possibly snatch an equaliser.

With just two minutes remaining Holt again went close after he struck a low effort after a good passing move but some great last ditch defending put the ball out for a corner.

Rochdale's last real chance came with a minute to go and it was, yes you guessed it, Grant Holt with the effort.  A cross came in and he attempted a spectacular overhead kick which unfortunately cleared the cross bar.

The final whistle was blown and Dale had lost 2-1 though their second half performance gave a lot to be encouraged about.

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 6 Half at fault for the second goal, not as convincing as Saturday

Jamie Clarke 6 Decent game from Clarke for the most part but got caught out a couple of times

Tony Gallimore 6 Got given the run-around by the impressive Kevin Betsy in the first half, better in the second half

Gareth Griffiths 7 Made up for his lack of pace with a decent defensive display, strong in the air

Jon Boardman 8 Poor early on but got better as the game went on and looked very, very impressive by the end of the game

Lee Cartwright 5 Very poor I thought, was inside too often and didn't win any challenges.  Only put one cross in all night

Tommy Jaszczun 7 Impressive again, got stuck in well and played more good passes than bad ones

GARY JONES 8 Superb tonight, battled all game and ran the second half.  Everything Dale did went through him

Neil Brisco 6 Not as effective as Saturday but not bad

Rickie Lambert 6 Another quiet game for Lambert who seemed to be playing with his head down

Grant Holt 7 Another battling performance from Holt who lacked the luck otherwise he could have had a few tonight

Subs:  

Blair Sturrock 7 Did nothing for the first 10 minutes he was on but after that he was a real handful and won the penalty

Alan Goodall 7 Gave us a boost on the left side but his crossing needs working on

Scott Warner 6 Got stuck in as he usually does though a few passes went astray

Photo: Action Images

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