Platty with the first, Evil with the second, Connor with the third, third, third and Evil with the fourth!!! Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to see Rochdale win today!

The football league is upside down! Dale absolutely destroyed league leaders Hartlepool, in what was our finest performance of the season. It could have even been more, if Evil hadn't have snatched at two easy chances one in each half.

Dale stuck with the same side again. Platt was behind the front two, and he was absolutely superb once again. In fact its hard to have a bad word to say about any of the players today. A fantastic Dale performance, as we saw off a team who have only lost once away from home in 9 months.

Hartlepool started lively but they couldn't manage to force any openings. Dale should have taken the lead when the ball fell to McEvilly at the back post, after a mistake by the keeper. With all the time in the world, Evil took his time to smash the ball, but Williams had recovered and produced a great save to deny Dale the lead.

Not soon later though and Dale were in front. Once again another mistake from Williams from a cross, saw Platt in almost the same position Evil had been earlier, and after a slight scramble, he finally forced the ball home.

McEvilly had soon made up for his earlier miss as he managed to tackle Williams in the goal at the side of his penalty area as the keeper messed about with the ball. Evil somehow managed to squeeze the ball into the net from a tight angle, to make it 2-0.

The second half started how the first had finished with Dale very much on top. The front three were awesome. Connor broke free down the wing and produced an inch perfect cross for Platt. The big man headed goal-wards, but Williams parried, it fell to Evil two yards out. He opted for power, and somehow once again Williams managed to keep the ball out.

Paul Connor had worked tirelessly throughout and was rewarded by getting on the score-sheet. A cross from the wing seemed to be about to be cleared but an assist goes to yours truly though for shouting 'Ooooooooh!' as the defender was about to clear, he missed the ball, and let Connor in on goal. He coolly slotted it past the advancing keeper into the bottom corner.

Dale were rampant, and a fourth wasn't far away. Connor this time broke down the right wing, produced another inch perfect cross for McEvilly who powered home a header straight into the bottom corner.

And that was that, 4-0 up, Hartlepool defeated. Grand went off with what looked like an injury and was replaced by Stephen Hill. Platt and McEvilly went off to standing ovations and were replaced by Paddy and Kev (the latter managing to get booked after being on about 2 minutes!)

An absolutely fantastic game for Dale. We outclassed supposedly the best side in the division, though on their performance today its hard to see why. But lets not take anything away from Dale, they were awesome, and probably should have won by an even bigger margin. Its good to be a Dale fan again!!! Is the comeback on!? Up The Dale!

Photo: Action Images

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