Rochdale returned to winning ways with a first ever win at Brisbane Road as they beat Leyton Orient 1-0 in a much improved performance. Report and ratings now online

After a somewhat unhappy few days at Rochdale with rumoured bust up's after the garbage performance we saw at home to Carlisle, Rochdale answered their critics with a fine display at Brisbane Road which saw Paul Simpson's men take 3 points off Leyton Orient for the very first time away from home and the 60 or so away fans went home very happy and went home saying "we were there!"

The starting line-up saw a couple of changes from the Carlisle game those being that on loan defender Lee Andrews went straight into the right wing back position in place of Scott Warner who dropped to the bench.  The other change saw Patrick McCourt, who came under fire from Paul Simpson after the Carlisle game, drafted into the starting line-up in place of the injured Clive Platt and played in an attacking midfield role which left Lee McEvilly up front on his own.  Despite many fans calling for Lee Hodges to be given a chance he was still left out of the squad.

It was Leyton Orient who started the game the brighter team and they had the first chance of the game which fell to Chris Tate who headed over the bar after 12 minutes.

Rochdale began to get into the game much more with Patrick McCourt going on mazy runs but nothing quite came out of them but on the half hour mark Leyton Orient should have broke the deadlock when Chris Tate picked up a loose ball in the box but his shot was easily saved by Matt Gilks.

It looked like the game would be going into half time at 0-0 but a minute or so before the break Patrick McCourt broke down the left on another of his several mazy runs which we all want to see more often from the Irishman and he was brought down in the box by Donny Barnard and the referee quickly pointed to the spot.  Lee McEvilly stepped up to strike the penalty and smashed it into the left hand corner sending the keeper the wrong way and also sending the Dale 1-0 up at the interval.

The start of the second half saw Leyton Orient come out the brighter and should have levelled the game within minutes of the restart when Alexander could quite get on the end of a dangerous cross.

Rochdale then got back into it when Matt Gilks launched a huge kick up towards Lee McEvilly who beat Simon Downer to the ball but his effort skimmed the bar and went over.

Chris Tate then went in very late on Dale defender Simon Grand but the referee somehow missed it and not long after the incident he did it again, this time on Dale skipper Gareth Griffiths which the referee did see and he received a caution but if he had seen the initial tackle on Grand then there was no way he would have stayed on the pitch.

Patrick McCourt was having a quiet spell but then picked up the ball on the left and quite simply made 3 Orient players look rather poor with another of his mazy runs but his square ball to Gavin Melaugh, who was excellent all night, was not capitalized on.

With 7 minutes to go, Paul Simpson made way for Rory Patterson and it would be fair to say Simpson was superb all night with his passing being excellent all night.

It was the introduction of Patterson which created Dale's last chance, he nodded the ball on and Lee McEvilly broke free one-on-one with the Orient keeper who had been poor all night and Evil was clearly having his shirt pulled but he managed to get a shot in and the referee decided to play the advantage rule but if Evil would have gone down he would probably have won another Dale penalty.

In conclusion it was a much different story than the poor performance against Carlisle as Dale played very well on the night and finally got that victory away at Leyton Orient for the first ever time and the 60 or so Dale fans that went left very happy indeed!

 

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 7 Not many saves to make but dealt with everything that came his way

Wayne Evans 6 Beaten for pace a couple of times but generally solid

Gareth Griffiths 7 Won nearly every header he went up for and was solid at the back

Simon Grand 7 Got stuck in well as usual and won a lot of tackles

Lee Andrews 6 Game pretty much passed him by for most of the game

Stephen Hill 7 Got forward well and was solid defensively.  Crossing was poor again

Gavin Melaugh 8 Quality.  Very comfortable on the ball and created a lot of space for himself to pass with ease.  Got stuck in well also

David Flitcroft 7 A few passes went astray in the first half but played well in the second half

Paul Simpson 8 Very good performance.  Passing was top notch for the duration he was on

Patrick McCourt 8 Numerous dazzling runs which took the piss out of the defence and won the penalty.  Proved he was up to 90 minutes

Lee McEvilly 7 Got the goal, had a couple of other chances and caused the defence problems all night

Subs:  

Rory Patterson 7 Not on long but played quite well for the short time he was on

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