Rochdale dropped to fifth in the league following a poor 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Oxford United. Full match report and player ratings online now.

A poor performance from Rochdale saw them come away from Spotland with no points as Oxford United won 1-0 in what was a horrible game to watch.

Rochdale were forced into making a change with Neil Brisco out injured with a dislocated shoulder sustained on Saturday at Barnet.  He was another player added to the injury list which already saw key players Ernie Cooksey and Alan Goodall unable to play, from the start at least in Goodall's case.  This meant that a debut was given to Rory McArdle who slotted in at right back with Jamie Clarke pushing into midfield.  Matt Gilks was in net, Rory McArdle at right back, Tommy Jaszczun at left back, Tony Gallimore and Gareth Griffiths at centre back.  Scott Warner, Jamie Clarke and Gary Jones were in midfield with Blair Sturrock, Rickie Lambert and Grant Holt up front.  Danny Woodhall, Jon Boardman, Gary Brown, Alan Goodall and Paul Tait were on the bench.

The game started off as a lively affair with Rory McArdle getting involved from the first minute and with three minutes gone he mistimed a tackle and sent Craig Davies flying into the air.  Davies milked the situation and McArdle received a yellow card from the referee.

The game was being played mainly in the midfield after that and bar a couple of half chances from Holt and Griffiths, nothing worth reporting occurred. 

With around twenty minutes gone, McArdle nearly headed Rochdale into the lead after he got on the end of a Jamie Clarke corner but his header flashed agonisingly wide of the far post.

Rickie Lambert could have put Rochdale in the lead with the half coming to a close with a shot from around twenty five yards but he'd been forced into switching onto his weaker foot and the shot wasn't as powerful as he'd have liked and Billy Turley was hardly troubled.

The half time whistle blew and a poor first half came to an end.

The second half was even worse than the first half, especially for the home side who had reverted to playing long ball tactics to the strikers who were being marked out of the game.

With just six minutes of the second half played Oxford should have been ahead.  A freekick from the right was met by Wilmott who powered a header on goal but Matt Gilks pulled off a superb save to push it away for a corner.

The hour mark came and with it, came the only goal of the game and unfortunately, it went to the visitors.  Barry Quinn had a shot from outside the box which took a huge deflection which diverted it past Gilks to make it 1-0 to Oxford.  From where I was it did take a while to go in after the deflection but didn't look like Gilks had much chance with it.  The messageboard after the game though suggests he was too static and slow to react.

Alan Goodall was brought on for debutant Rory McArdle with Clarke going back to right back and Tommy Jaszczun going into midfield and Goodall going to left back.

With around twenty minutes left, Rochdale should have scored an equaliser and probably would have had it not been for an atrocious decision from the linesman to give Grant Holt offside when his run started from about three yards behind the defender.  The linesman's flag went up and the Dale fans were in disbelief with nearly all the main stand going mad along with the Sandy Lane fans.

A very poor Rickie Lambert made way for Paul Tait to the disappointment of the fans.  Lambert was awful during the game but were things that desperate?

Very late on, Tony Gallimore could have nicked an equaliser with a piledriver from thirty yards which Turley did well to save down to his left. 

Grant Holt was shown a yellow card deep into stoppage time after he and Leo Roget squared up to each other after Holt had been fouled by the centre half and Roget pushed Holt away.

The game finished and Dale lost 1-0 in what was a very poor showing.  I fully expect a reaction performance against Rushden & Diamonds on Saturday though Rochdale will be without Grant Holt who is suspended.

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 6 Not too much to do really but didn't look like he had much chance with the goal.  Made one excellent save early in the second half

Rory McArdle 6 Did ok, got caught out of position a few times but didn't let nerves get the better of him

Tommy Jaszczun 5 Poor, too many times Gallimore had to cover for him and his long range passing rarely found a Dale body

Tony Gallimore 7 Got done by their forward a couple of times but made up for it very well with timely tackles and interceptions

GARETH GRIFFITHS 7 Good first half, strong in the air and looked fairly solid throughout

Scott Warner 6 Dale's best midfielder again I thought.  Got stuck in well and worked hard

Jamie Clarke 6 Did well moving back into midfield, his passing was excellent at times but didn't look too good when moving to right back

Gary Jones 6 Had a good first 35 minutes or so but not impressive after that

Blair Sturrock 5 Very poor tonight.  Worked hard but his touch let him down through out

Rickie Lambert 4 Awful, easily his worst performance in a Dale shirt.  Nothing wrong with his touch but he didn't like the ball being hoofed up to him and he looked very poor. 

Grant Holt 6 Not a brilliant performance from Holt, worked hard but to no avail

Sub:  

Alan Goodall 6 Had one good run but not too brilliant after that

Paul Tait 6 Came on for Lambert and offered nothing more

Photo: Action Images

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