Rochdale 2-1 Port Vale

[valefan16]

Yet again Page got the result that he deserved away from home. Never has any ambition to try and win the game, he just doesn't want to lose and would be happy to draw every game. We were time wasting from the moment we took the lead. As for the diving I'd have to agree in that Grant is developing an annoying habit of playing for fouls and goes to ground at the slightest touch.
As for Rochdale I thought Calvin Andrew was brilliant, 10x the player we saw for us and far better than anything we had on the pitch today.

Pages tactic of not losing away would be great but it never comes off!

Six of our seven losses have been away and you'd have to say the sides we've played away have generally been weaker so far than who we've faced at VP (Wigan, Gills, Blunts)

 

[Freakyteeth]

Joke of a penalty decision but no excuse, we should be beating Rochdale regardless

 

[valefan16]

Joke of a penalty decision but no excuse, we should be beating Rochdale regardless

From what I saw of Dale on sky a couple of weeks ago and their form I'm disappointed the run ended today and certainly conceding a penalty that wasn't and seemingly Uche not getting one when cleaned out by the keeper but we go again and after so many games (on heavy pitches too) since last Thursday it was going to be tough. Missing several key players at the moment and had a stronger bench than XI which frustrates me a bit. Purkiss is as good as any right back in the division and should be back in now he's fit again. If we don't get Dickos red overturned as it sounds from the video their lad employed some poor gamesmanship to get him sent off then it'll be interesting to see how Page sets up the back four going forward. Deen-Conteh surely worth a go.

 

[mozzavale]

Deserved to win. Vale tactics were 'questionable' to say the least. In other words you were a dirty, diving, anti football team. No other ways to describe it. Happy with the win. Referee was absolutely abysmal.

4th game in 9 days on a heavy pitch. Hardly going to be Barcelona type approach was It? Went to grind out a result, unlucky it didn't work in the end. We move on.

 

[darren gregory]

Clearly the right result and we can have no complaints, the referee however goodness me. Firstly Hill took off the number 16 as he quite clearly should of already been sent off after a yellow and about 4 fouls afterwards. Hill spotted this so good management but the ref didn,t spot it !! The Rochdale penalty having seen it both live and on telly was a joke, he didn,t even make a definitive point towards the spot. Confusion reigned and was even thinking at one stage he may book their player not give a penno. Uche then fractionally gets to the ball before the keeper wipes him out, it is a penno 100 times out of 100. Absolutely diabolical referee. Having said all that Rochdale deserved to win, the amount of last ditch defending and ping pong in our 6 yard box was bound to succumb eventually. Don,t quite buy this anti-football, yes Rochdale played some decent stuff but were also guilty of a lot of niggly cynical fouls. Dicko was just a prat and got his just desserts. Summed up the whole day out really. God i hate that place, god damn awful dreary dump but i still keep going !!!

 

[valefan16]

For an anti football team we made seven fouls to their 17

 

[Freakyteeth]

Our terrible record against these lately is starting to grate a little.

When the Chinese invade in the next few decades I rather hope Rochdale gets nuked

 

[Steven Simcock]

In the end Dale deserved the win but the peno changed the game. It may have been a different story had the ref not been constantly against vale.


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[The Dark Knight]

It'd be very easy to sit here and moan about the referee and his decisions, but ultimately, it won't make a difference to the result. It was your stereotypical game of two halves. Although Rochdale could've taken an early lead, denied by a fantastic fingertip save from Jak Alnwick after a deflection off a Vale player, I felt we played the better football in the first half and frustrated them. I counted six occasions where we drew cynical and mistimed challenges from them, yet astonishingly, the referee didn't even brandish a yellow card until the sixth and final one, much to the disbelief of the travelling contingent.

Hill took off O'Sullivan as it was clear as day that he wasn't going to see out the remainder of the game without being dismissed. The penalty was a mixture of both disgraceful and bewildering. Since seeing the incident replayed on both Sky Sports and Football League Tonight, my opinion remains the same. A perfect tackle from Dickinson. Even Keith Hill admitted that in his post-match interview. The referee didn't even acknowledge that he'd even given a spot kick. No consultation with his official on that side. Not even a blow of the whistle. Nothing. Bizarre. There wasn't any appeals from the home supporters either. Confusing to say the least.

From that moment forward, we seemed to have dropped off a bit, and suddenly allowed Dale to have more of the ball in the middle. O'Connor was constantly caught out of position and McGivern kept coming forward for challenges far too often, which opened up pockets of space for them to break into. Overall, I believe we were undeservedly heading into the break level and the majority of the away end were furious with the officials.

Second half. Different story. Rochdale came out a different team. By the hour mark, we were effectively playing with ten men as Louis Dodds was absolutely abysmal and was just running around in circles, not putting a foot in or even attempting to win the ball back. I thought Hooper and Henderson were absolutely fantastic second half and completely ran the midfield. Dickinson seemed more interested in constantly berating the officials after every decision, even when sometimes they got the odd one correct. He should've concentrated on doing his job properly as our supposed captain and left back instead of giving others grief when he's blatantly at fault.

However, the one player that deserves a lot of praise is Calvin Andrew. A great all-round performance from the lad. Consistently won flick-ons, continually won his aerial battles, held the ball up well and linked up with the midfield brilliantly. Dodds couldn't get near him all afternoon and looked lost. He was instrumental in them retaining possession, especially in the second half. As I predicted in my pre-match post, we struggled to contain Mendez-Laing and regularly allowed him far too much time and space on the ball and he deservedly punished us with a tidy finish in the bottom corner after a series of blocks and deflections fell kindly for him.

We can argue about the referee and the decisions all day long but our approach the second half, coupled with awful changes by Page meant we deserved to lose. It wasn't even halfway through the game when the penalty fiasco took place, so we had over an entire half of football to put that right but we didn't and we paid the price. Uche got taken out by the goalkeeper and we should've had a stonewall penalty kick. No argument. Not even remotely surprised to see it not given by a dreadful referee, but there's a very good chance we could be sat here now discussing a 2-2 draw and a 7-game unbeaten run and an unbeaten November. However, that's not the case and we've only got ourselves to blame after that second half showing. Rochdale played some excellent football in the final 30 minutes plus stoppage time and looked like the only side looking to win the game.

Page got it wrong for me yesterday. Back to the same old, negative, predictable changes. Uche should've come on at half time to replace the completely anonymous Dodds. Pushing Foley onto the right wing to bring Kelly on just to accommodate Dodds in the middle was ridiculous. Kelly offered little and Foley struggled on the opposite wing. Hooper thrown into the deep end again from a losing position away from home with barely enough time to properly settle into the game.

A deserved win for Dale, but it could've admittedly been a different outcome with a competent refereeing display. Dale need to build on this now, as their inconsistency has let them down this season. We need to take the defeat on the chin, and look to put things right on Sunday down at Exeter. Changes needed at the back and in terms of substitutions otherwise we will struggle again. It's only one loss so I'm not going to dwell on it too much, but we really are our own worst enemy at times. Plenty more points to play for and we've only dropped a place with other results yesterday. Onwards and upwards, as they say.

 

[darren gregory]

Dark Knight, good posting but a bit contradictory? You felt we played the better football in the first half and frustrated them yet were undeservedly level? Can,t agree with that at all, the timing of the ' penalty ' was also crucial, 5 mins before half time changes the ethos of the game and both team talks. I agree it was a typical negative display, as ever Dodds comes in for criticism, how about the awful displays from Foley and O'Connor. Compare Rochdale corners and free kicks to ours !!! Light years away, i barely applaud when we get a corner as the last time we probably scored off one was Chilvers at Rochdale 3 seasons back. Neither of our set piece takers seem to clear the first man and we are powder puff. Love all the Vale are anti-football comments too from Dale fans. Rochdale 4 yellows to Vale's 1 and twice the amount of fouls commited . Overall a crappy day out and having gone on that little run if we look back, Worst Shrews side ever to come to Vale, lucky against Barnsley and Blackpool and good effort against a Chesterfield side in freefall hence Saunders sacking. We are what we are, mid table inconsistent.

 

[TomPNE94]

Dark Knight, good posting but a bit contradictory? You felt we played the better football in the first half and frustrated them yet were undeservedly level? Can,t agree with that at all, the timing of the ' penalty ' was also crucial, 5 mins before half time changes the ethos of the game and both team talks. I agree it was a typical negative display, as ever Dodds comes in for criticism, how about the awful displays from Foley and O'Connor. Compare Rochdale corners and free kicks to ours !!! Light years away, i barely applaud when we get a corner as the last time we probably scored off one was Chilvers at Rochdale 3 seasons back. Neither of our set piece takers seem to clear the first man and we are powder puff. Love all the Vale are anti-football comments too from Dale fans. Rochdale 4 yellows to Vale's 1 and twice the amount of fouls commited . Overall a crappy day out and having gone on that little run if we look back, Worst Shrews side ever to come to Vale, lucky against Barnsley and Blackpool and good effort against a Chesterfield side in freefall hence Saunders sacking. We are what we are, mid table inconsistent.

Undeservedly level, as in Vale deserved to be ahead

 

[mozzavale]

That's how I read it too

 

[Dale4ever]

I don't think either side deserved to be ahead at the break. Vale had only had 2 shots on target by about the 70th min.