Home Fixtures/Results Player Profiles Club Statistics Forum     A long journey south for the Rochdale Supporters Team and with a number of key players missing this looked to be the biggest threat to their proud unbeaten record this season. A number of players arriving late due to traffic did not help the situation and needless to say our build up to the game was not as we would normally expect.  This saw Dale start slowly and with a few new faces in the side needing time to find their feet – they slipped behind to a quick break away by the Wanderers. As we have seen so often this season the teams solidarity kicked in and after a few more Wycombe chances one nearly leading to a Veevers family fallout we came back into the game. Veevers and Smith in the midfield started to get hold of the ball and were able to give the impressive Ratcliffe opportunities to run at the Wycombe defence – this combined with the strike partnership of Kaminskas and Halliwell started to create chances for the dale and after a few close calls, crossbars and blocks we forced an deserved equaliser from a nice team move which resulted in Veevers tapping home from close range. This spurred the team on and some excellent passing across the whole side resulted in a second when a corner broke out to Veevers who clipped a ball to the far post for Halliwell to register his first for the dale with a well directed header. We went in 2-1 up at the break with a deserved lead with the team feeling disappointed to not have taken all of their chances. The 2nd started in the same vain and Ratcliffe continued to terrorise the Wycombe defence. Solid work from the back line helped to find Ratcliffe far on the right and his weaving run resulted in Rochdale’s 3rd with a crisp finish. Further jinking runs resulted in Ratcliffe's 2nd and he wrapped up his hat trick in similar fashion. Rochdale’s pressure was relentless and a corner was cleared to Veevers on the edge of the box and his shot-cum-cross found a stray Wycombe boot for an own goal. Wycombe were struggling to create many chances and the dale added 2 more before the end – Ratcliffe getting his 4th after a fine team move and lovely through ball. At the death Kaminskas shrugged off his “Woodall” tag after missing a glut of chances by slotting home under the keeper after a fine run. All in all a solid performance after a sluggish start – so called fringe players stepped into the breech and performed admirably and new additions Halliwell and Smith provided an assured debut. The return of Mr “Rochdale Supporters” Steve Crossley ensured the back line was as solid as always. Man of the Match has to go to Ratcliffe who returned to the side with his usual high energy performance and his 4 individual goals.     Copyright © 2006-2008 Rochdale Supporters FC                Web Hosting By FreeVirtualServers                                                       Contact Us