Dale crashed to yet another home defeat - this time to Wrexham, and they never looked like doing anything different from the kick off to the final whistle. There could be no excuses at all, as we allowed the visitors to boss the game throughout. Report now online.

This was shocking. If I was to say that it wasn't our worst performance of the season, that should not be interpreted as being some sort of endorsement of today's proceedings. It was awful, it was predictable and it was enough to make supporters upbeat at news of forthcoming postponements. But we've been here before. We've seen it so many times in recent weeks. You know what's going to happen. We start, we go behind, and since the departure of Grant Holt, we've never looked like have the necessary battle or desire to get back into games.

And with no disrespect to Wrexham, but they're not a good side. But they looked light years ahead of us this afternoon. They had intelligence and a purpose and they will have left today wondering how they only won by one goal.

We kicked off towards the WMG on a pitch which I suppose could have been much worse. There was plenty of sand on it, but it looked flat enough, though appearances I suppose can be deceiving. Either way, (cliché alert!) it was the same for both teams, yet you'd never have thought so.

In terms of incidents, there wasn't a right lot to talk about. There was a foul by Gallimore on Wrexham striker Derbyshire which saw our number three threaten the young striker for some reason. It had an effect and for the next 10 minutes, he kept well out of the way of Galli.

But then the inevitable happened. You have to go back over five months to find the last time that we scored the first goal in a home game  (18th October or 15th October if you're being pedantic). Totally unacceptable, but nevertheless expected. A cross came over from the Main Stand, and our defence just watched it sail by, before Derbyshire, free from the Gallimore shackles, had all the time in the world. With Gilks having the whole goal to protect, Derbyshire decided to trickle the ball through the Dale keeper's legs. 1-0 Wrexham, game over and seventy minutes plus to shiver through till it was all confirmed.

It was almost 2-0 seconds later, when a Gallimore mistake saw Gilks having to tip an excellent shot over the bar. There was only one side in the game.

There were some positives I guess. Ramsden delivered some excellent crosses over. Dagnall produced a superb finish, lobbing the ball over the keeper's head only for it to have been ruled out for offside several seconds earlier and Rickie Lambert stood out as being the best player on the field by a mile, but them apart, it was clutching at straws time.

Second half, with the wind behind us, was even worse. Our sole tactic seemed to be the long ball, but given the strong wind, it often went far beyond the reach of the Dale attack, and when the ball was delivered to the right areas, we found the Wrexham defence (all six foot seven of it) coping with ease.

Our one true chance of the entire game came early in the second half when a Lambert corner was met by Christie but his header (which may have hit a hand along the way) was cleared off the line and that was that. Entertainment over.

Well that's not true. We did have reason to smile at the lack of communication between the referee and the linesman over a free kick which was eventually re-taken after the ref and linesman both decided it was a throw in before changing their minds twelve times over. Doolan got a yellow card for his efforts.

And Bayliss decided to re-enact history by being sent off against his former side at Spotland for the second consecutive time. It was for a second booking, but in all fairness, we could have ended the afternoon with several more yellow cards than we did.

If there was to be any more action, it took place in our goalmouth, and Wrexham showed their charitable side by missing two open goals in the space of seconds. Derbyshire rounded Gilks on the edge of the box, before calmly side footing the ball towards goal, only to see it cleared off the line. The rebound went straight to him, but his 2nd shot hit the inside of the post before disappearing off with our interest.

And with five minutes left, three of the free entries decided they had enough, and raced down half the length of the pitch before launching snowballs at the Dale dugout. Fortunately for all concerned, their shooting was Tait-like, but how long can this policy of not trying to prevent people invading the pitch be allowed? By my reckoning, this is the fourth time this season, and possibly the third home game on the trot with such an incident.

But that was perhaps the only incident to break the tedium that had engulfed Spotland throughout the afternoon, and aside from a couple of excellent crosses from Ben Kitchen late on which failed to interest the Dale forward line, the referee's final whistle couldn't come quick enough. This had been an afternoon with nothing to justify turning up, and with many supporters finding other things to do on these enforced free Saturday afternoons, the crowds will continue to dwindle. I dread to think what season ticket sales will be in the Summer.

So where now? Well many of us were quick to praise the management when things were going well earlier in the season, so it is only right that the buck must stop at Parkin's door. It was a Dale team made up of players that he himself signed for the club and an injury to Mark Jackson and Alan Goodall cannot be disguised as an injury crisis.

It's hardly a secret that during his time at Spotland, I've been one of Parkin's biggest supporters, but it is looking increasingly clear that we were carried by Grant Holt over the past couple of years, and we simply relied on his ability to create something out of nothing. Take that away, and despite replacements, there's very little there at all. Fair enough, we've probably got enough points already to ensure that we limp to a safe lower half of the table finish this season.

Like many other Parkin supporters, I've often pointed to the season on season progress as justification for his managerial reign. It is clear that the 2006 version of Dale is significantly poorer than the 2005 model. There's an argument that having got us finishing higher than the previous season in three or four of years in charge, he's entitled to a bit of faith after failing to match that again. But our form is relegation form, and safe as we will probably be this season, thoughts are understandably turning towards 2007 and wondering how things can get better from what we've been served up for the last four months.

Photo: Action Images

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