Rochdale's trip to London Road will want to be forgotten fast. They lost 3-1 after taking the lead and fell to 4th place. Full report and player ratings are online now.

It had to happen at some stage I suppose and it was just so typical that we would balls it up big time when the teams around us were losing and we had a big chance of ending the day top of League 2.  It really makes you wonder why we sing "We are top of the league."  Why do we let ourselves do it?

Dale went into the game with the same team as the Notts County match with Gilks in net, a defence consisting of Goodhind, Griffiths, Boardman and Gallimore.  The midfield was Cartwright, Jones, Clarke and Goodall with Holt and Lambert up front. 

Despite the result, Dale looked alright in the first half and started the game off quite well..  Both sides looked to attack and they did it well but neither team could find the breakthrough early on.  Grant Holt had a good effort which was saved by Tyler in the Posh net and just a couple of minutes later, Posh broke with Rochdale reject Paul Carden broke forward but Gallimore did well to stand him up and stop him going any further.

I said on the way home that I thought we came up against one of the best players in the Division in this match in David Farrell who looked very quick and caused all sorts of problems for the defence and one a few occasions he made Gallimore and Boardman look very silly.

With nearly half an hour gone, Rochdale were awarded a penalty.  Unfortunately I can't fully describe what happened as I didn't see the incident but apparently Grant Holt was being held in the box and the referee pointed to the spot.  I did run to where I could see the penalty being taken though and it was Dale's top scorer who again stepped up to take it and he placed it perfectly into the right corner sending Tyler the wrong way.  This put Dale up and that started the chants of "We are top of the league say we are top of the league" followed by "Grant Holt will never score" as a bit of a piss take as Mark Wright's said pre-match that neither Holt or Lambert would score against his team.

Matt Gilks had a day he won't look back on fondly.  His kicking was awful all game and he didn't look steady at all.  At one point I thought Tony Gallimore was going to murder him as Gilks failed to stop a ball running out for a corner with little effort.  Gallimore let rip and you could see the steam coming out of his ears. 

Despite being one goal behind, Peterborough still looked capable of getting something out of the game and they continued to attack.  A couple of dangerous crosses into the box weren't capitalised on otherwise the home side could have gone in even or maybe winning.

The first half ended and the crowd were treated to cheerleaders who will be pleased that they're off school next week.  It didn't stop some of the male Dale fans singing what has become a regular song when they see a half decent lass.

The second half was one that both Rochdale players and the travelling fans will want to forget quickly.

Posh were back on level terms when former Biffo Dean Holden broke down the left and put in a fantastic cross which Danny Crow met and all he had to do was connect and the ball flew past Gilks to make it 1-1.

Things got much worse for Rochdale and ten minutes later they found themselves 2-1 down.  Lee Thorpe had been a handful for Griffiths and Boardman, both of which really struggled in the game.  Thorpe took on Griffiths, beat him for pace easily, got past him and Griff made an awful attempt at winning the ball back by sliding in, getting nowhere near the ball and bringing Thorpe down on the edge of the six yard box.  Penalty kick given.  Sagi Burton stepped up for Mark Wright's team and blasted the ball into the bottom left hand corner.

It wasn't looking particularly nice and it got worse still as Peterborough made it 3-1 soon after and a combination of defensive blunders and poor goalkeeping was to blame.  Danny Crowe took on Griffiths, Boardman and Gallimore, got past them before smashing the ball goalwards from the edge of the box.  His shot went straight through the hands of Gilks and he should have done much better.

Blair Sturrock came on for Rickie Lambert and he managed to have two shots on target in the first few minutes of coming on.  Rochdale only managed three in the whole bloody game!

Ernie Cooksey came on for Lee Cartwright as Parkin had one last attempt to get back into the game though it was never going to happen.

The game finished 3-1 to The Posh who in the second half looked a very good side who made a very poor Rochdale side pay. 

Rochdale now find themselves 4th in League 2 and they take on Lincoln City on Saturday at Spotland.

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 4 Absolutely awful.  Nothing went right at all for him

Warren Goodhind 6 Our best defender but that wasn't too hard really

Tony Gallimore 5 Very poor.  Did ok first half but was awful in the second half

Jon Boardman 5 Also very poor.  Was made to look silly at times

Gareth Griffiths 5 Gave away a penalty with an awful attempt at a tackle and couldn't contain their strikeforce

Lee Cartwright 6 Did ok in the first half but the ball didn't reach the midfield in the second half as all we did was defend! 

ALAN GOODALL 7 My Dale M.O.M, looked a constant threat in the first half but was largely uninvolved in the second half

Gary Jones 6 Ok from Jones though he, like the whole team, were awful in the second half

Jamie Clarke 6 Did quite well in the first half but I thought it was a game for a more solid midfielder such as Warner or Ernie

Rickie Lambert 6 Not brilliant today.  Worked hard but got nothing from it and some passes were poor

Grant Holt 6 Looked our best threat in the first half and got another goal

Sub:  

Blair Sturrock 7 Did well after coming on

Ernie Cooksey 6 Not involved too much

Gary Brown 6 On late for Gallimore but not on long enough to have an impact

Photo: Action Images

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