Rochdale 1 Darlington 1

10/03/2007

Rochdale approached this game on the back of a good 3-2 win at Shrewsbury and welcomed back a few players who were missing from that game. The only change to the starting line up was Mark Woodall returning in the absence of Paul Veevers. Liam Ratcliffe made his home debut on the right wing.

To be honest the game was all one way traffic in favour of Rochdale and they kept going at the Darlington goal throughout. The opening goal came when Ratcliffe was chopped down on the right and the resulting free kick was swung in and the same player met the ball with his head to give Dale the lead. Harwood had a speculative 40 yard drive go over the bar soon after!

The closest Darlington came was an effort that came off the top of the bar after being superbly tipped onto it by Coluccio. This was their only real effort of the first half.

The pattern of play was reflected again in the second half with Dale perhaps dominating even more but they just couldn't finish their play off. They had a great chance from the penalty spot. Milnes took the penalty which cannoned off the underside of the bar, bounced over the line and came back out. Unfortunately we don't have video technology so it was judged to have not gone in.

It seemed as though the game was just going to peter out into a 1-0 win for Rochdale but that all changed when a harsh free kick was given for 'obstruction.' As is always the case it resulted in a soft goal as the ball fell at the feet of a Darlington player 3 yards out and he made no mistake finishing low into the net. 

Rochdale battered the opposition goal for the remaining ten minutes but just couldn't find the winner. The closest they came was when Harwood's effort was saved by the Darlington keeper and then hit the back of a defender on the line, again there were some that thought it had crossed the line but it wasn't to be.

Line Up

1 - Jon Coluccio

2 - Dave Veevers

5 - Steve Crossley

6 - Kenny Hindle

3 - Simon Irving

7 - Craig Milnes

8 - Liam Ratcliffe

4 - Ryan Higginbotham

11 - Jan Harwood

9 - Luke Lloyd

10 - Mark Woodall

Substitutes

14 - Jon Hudson

17 - Luke Evans (Replaced Lloyd)

12 - Andy Lorimer (Replaced Woodall)