Dale lie two points off relegation but it could have been just one had it not been for a dramatic comeback to get a 2-2 at Northampton Town. Full report and ratings online now.

Rochdale managed to get a point against Northampton despite being 2-0 down at half time.  Two goals from Rickie Lambert got Dale back into the game with the help of a different formation.

However, it was more important a point than first realised given the other results from the weekend.  Rushden, Macclesfield and Chester all won meaning that Rochdale are just two points off the relegation zone.  I'm now more worried about relegation than I was in Parkin's first season back!

As predicted, Parkin went 4-5-1 for the game which I couldn't understand.  We were surely playing right into the hands of Northampton and allowing them to attack a poor defence and awful goalkeeper with a very good attack.  Surely not a good idea?  Anyway, we lined up with Gilks, Ramsden, Goodall, Jackson, Griffiths, Brown, Kitchen, Cooksey, Doolan, Jones and Lambert.

I'm not going to lie to you, the first half of this game was about as bad as it's been in years and that's saying something given some of the crap we have had to watch this season!

The ball was being hoofed up to Lambert on the rare occasion we had the ball and it just kept coming back because Lambert isn't a target man, never has been, never will be.

It wasn't long before Northampton was ahead and it came from a quite frequent source, that being a Matthew Gilks mistake.  A ball came in from the right wing and Gilks dropped it, tried to recover it but in doing so, brought their lad down but that didn't matter because McGleish squared the ball to Low who smashed it home anyway.  Que a Chaff rant and rave behind the goal!

Pretty much straight after that, Rochdale should have been level, a ball came across to Gary Brown who was about five yards out and in acres of space, all he had to do was hit it cleanly, he scuffed it completely and it went out for a goalkick!

It all went to pot for Rochdale.  John Doolan in particular was having what must have been one of the worst games of his professional career.  He gave the ball away that much that we even cheered when he found a Dale player with a pass! 

With less than half an hour gone, it was 2-0 to Northampton who were now cruising.  Mark Jackson and Matthew Gilks got into a mix up as Gilks failed to come to collect the ball forcing Jacko to play it out for a corner.  The corner came in and McGleish was unmarked and managed to volley it superbly in off the crossbar.  Jackson failed to pick McGleish up and it proved costly.

From then on I was predicting that it could well be a cricket score and I wasn't meaning an England One Day score either!

Half time came and we were left wondering how we were going to keep the score down to single figures.  Parkin decide to impersonate Jose Mourinho and make the changes necessary by bringing Chris Dagnall and Iyesden Christie on for Gary Brown and John Doolan for the second half as Dale reverted to a 4-3-3.

The changes paid dividends and right from the whistle to get the second half under way, we were absolutely superb.

With five minutes of the half gone, Rochdale were back in it at 2-1.  Christie laid the ball off to Lambert just inside the box and he rocketed the ball past Harper into the back of the net for his 18th goal of the season.

Rochdale had a penalty shout turned down by Mr Singh when Ben Kitchen went through on goal but a last ditch attempt at a tackle brought the attack to an end.  I agreed with Mr Singh's decision and said it was never a penalty and only one Luton based Dale supporter agreed with me.  I certainly wouldn't have given it.

Dagnall and Christie were causing havoc for the Cobblers defence who were struggling to deal with them.  Dagnall had several very good chances to score but it was either brilliantly blocked by a defender or brilliantly saved by Harper.  Christie had chances as well, twice he should have got his head on the ball from superb crosses into the box but both times he didn't seem to move towards the ball and the ball went past his head.

Ben Kitchen was causing a few problems as well and had a glorious chance to get an equaliser with a header which he couldn't make the most of.

Finally, the breakthrough came in the last minute!  Alan Goodall bombed forward down the left and got into the box and was lining up a shot before he was pushed over and Singh pointed to the spot.  Rickie Lambert stepped up and blasted the ball down the middle for goal number 19 of the season.  He'll no doubt have impressed the on-looking Sheffield United scouts. 

He might have buggered up the team selection from the start but he made the right changes at half time to change it.  Luckily, it worked!

A point away at Northampton is a great result but when you consider that we could have been just one point behind Rushden instead of two which we now are, it makes it that bit more important.  The table reads like this now:

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 4 At fault for the first goal, not helpful in the second goal and just looked very dodgy throughout

Simon Ramsden 6 Poor in the first half but did alright in the second half

Alan Goodall 7 Made the run that led to the equaliser and had a good game

Mark Jackson 7 He was at fault for the second goal but other than that he had a very good game

Gareth Griffiths 6 He was as slow as a snail on morphine which nearly cost us but not disastrous

Gary Brown 5 Missed an awesome chance in the first half and was taken off at half time to suit the new system

Ben Kitchen 7 Worked well down the left but couldn't take advantage of a couple of great chances

John Doolan 3 Absolutely bloody awful!  Must be dropped after that surely!

Gary Jones 7 First half Jones did very little but the second half he was involved in everything.  Superb second half.

Ernie Cooksey 7 Did well, much more effective in the middle than out wide, take note Steve.

RICKIE LAMBERT 8 First half he had the ball lamped up to him and he couldn't play that way, second half he got two goals for us and created many chances.  My Man of the Match.

Subs:  

Chris Dagnall 8 On for the second half and was superb.  Created lots of chances and could have had a couple of goals

Iyesden Christie 7 Also on for the second half and caused lots of problems, wasted some great chances though

Scott Warner 7 Not on long but did well when he was on

Photo: Action Images

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