Rochdale slipped to 9th in the league following their 4th consecutive defeat, this time against Wrexham but it was a big improvement on recent matches. Full match report and player ratings are online now.

December is proving to be a month that all Dale fans will want to forget.  We dusted off the passports and headed for foreign land for our Boxing Day fixture against Wrexham (Wrecsam) and like every other game this month, we came back with absolutely sod all.

It wasn't like the other games though because we came away thinking we deserved to get something out of the game having had more efforts on goal and looked the better side throughout.  It says a lot when their goals came from a penalty that was shall we say, a little dubious and their second was a special strike which at the time, was only about their second chance of the game.

The Regulator Warren Goodhind was back after a one match suspension, Ernie Cooksey returned to the starting line-up as did Lionel Blair Sturrock as Dale went three up front.  The Dale team was:  Gilks, Goodhind, Goodall, Gallimore, Griffiths, Brisco, Jones, Cooksey, Sturrock, Lambert and Tait.

Dale started the game quite well and nearly scored an early goal when Gary Jones had a shot well saved.

Paul Tait got the Rochdale opener after about twenty minutes to the shock of the travelling supporters, not least myself.  Gary Jones did magnificently to put a fantastic cross in to the back post for Paul Tait who got on the end of it with an excellent diving header.  This prompted such songs as "Paulo Di Taitio" and "Same Old Taity, Always Scoring" and if you're reading Paul, yes, it is meant in jest.

Wrexham were given an equaliser by the referee as he gave a penalty for no apparent reason.  The penalty was given against Gareth Griffiths but god knows what for.  Crowell sent Gilks the wrong way and it was 1-1 but the fourth official said it wasn't a penalty afterwards along with Wrexham manager Denis Smith.

With it at 1-1 I expected Wrexham to go on and win the game comfortably but that wasn't the case, well, their win certainly wasn't comfortable.

Ernie Cooksey had a header cleared off the line shortly after that and Dale looked like they could score again and get three points.

The Welsh had the better of the opening second half exchanges and could have taken the lead with a half chance and then around the hour, took the lead with a stunning effort. 

Gareth Griffiths went down under a challenge and was in a considerable amount of pain.  He was taken off and Rory McArdle came on to replace him.

It started with Dale attacking and forcing Ingham into a superb save from Lionel Blair's shot.  The big kick forward from the keeper ended up with Darren Ferguson who hit a fantastic shot past Gilks and into the top corner.  Undeserved but a fabulous strike nonetheless.

Special praise now for a player who I've found it fairly easy to criticise given his shoddy performances since joining the club about a year and a half ago.  Neil Brisco, who must think that having the same haircut as Gary Jones, will make him as good, had a magnificent two minute spell yesterday.  In this two minutes, he managed to put his first two proper tackles for the club and even play a good pass.  Hopefully, this spell will see the turn around of Neil Brisco and we'll see more of his quality, can we stretch to at least three minutes tomorrow Neil?

Dale pushed for the equaliser but it never came.  Paul Tait had a glorious chance to equalise when he was just four yards out, unmarked with a completely free header and he headed well wide of the far post.  It was an absolutely awful effort and even though it was Paul Tait, I couldn't believe for one second that he would miss it. 

Warren G almost scored as well when he put a cross in that looked like it was too close to the keeper but it went over him and rebounded off the crossbar onto the post and out.

The game finished and although we came away with nothing and I was annoyed and quiet because of it, the overall feeling was that we didn't lose because we'd played very poorly because overall, we were the better side. 

Four games, four defeats for Rochdale now and next up is bury tomorrow.  Would be a nice time to regain some form I'm sure you'll agree.

Player Ratings:

Matthew Gilks 7 Not much to do bar one excellent save and had no chance with either goal

Warren Goodhind 7 Attacked very well and looked very good at times

Alan Goodall 7 Tried to break forward as much as possible

Tony Gallimore 7 Good solid performance from Galli

Gareth Griffiths 7 Was dealing with their attack until going off injured

Neil Brisco 6 Had a superb 2 minutes in the second half.  His whereabouts for the other 88 are as yet unknown

GARY JONES 8 Again, Man of the Match with a superb performance.

Ernie Cooksey 7 Attacked at every opportunity and that's what we've missed in recent weeks

Blair Sturrock 7 Excellent after a slow 20 minutes in the first half and nearly bagged a couple

Rickie Lambert 6 Improved on recent weeks.  Seems that despite him being so high in the scoring charts, some weeks he doesn't play like it.

Paul Tait 7 Scored a very good goal and looked good, there was a horrible pre-Tranmere Tait like miss at the end though

Sub:  

Rory McArdle 7 Did well when he came on, still looked as solid as when Griff was on

Photo: Action Images

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