A capacity crowd jammed into San Spotland for today's crunch match with our European rivals Swansea City as Rochdale prepared for their 6th European match of the season (I class Shrewsbury as Wales!) in hope that the Dale could continue their fine run of form and stretch our unbeaten run to 2 games!

No chance!

Another garbage and gutless performance from Rochdale this afternoon as they lost 2-1 to fellow relegation battlers Swansea City at Spotland in front of 2777 of which 731 made the trip from Swansea and the travelling support went home delighted while once again the home support left gutted and disappointed as we saw our league position hit the lowest since we finished 21st in the 1987-88 season.

Rochdale fielded the same team as our Easter Monday trip to already promoted Hartlepool United which was Gilks, Evans, Hill, Griffiths, Grand, Patterson, Doughty, Flitcroft, Beech, Platt and McEvilly.  No room in the starting 11 for this season's top scorer Paul Connor, last season's top scorer Kevin whats-his-name and Northern Ireland under 21's captain Gavin Melaugh who was even dropped from the bench for the fit again Darren Hockenhull on loan from Blackburn while the other Blackburn loanee, Michael Taylor was left out of the squad and replaced in the 16 by Richard Jobson.

Swansea started the game the better side and went close after around 5 minutes when Lenny Johnrose went close from a Roberto Martinez corner.  Rochdale went close around 10 minutes later when Clive Platt, who was subject to some very harsh criticism all game, managed to toe poke the ball past Cutler in the Swansea net and with just one defender in his way on the line, he hit the ball directly at him and the ball bounced clear. 

With 18 minutes gone, the deadlock was broken as Swansea striker Kevin Nugent rose to head a great Martinez cross to put the Swans 1-0 up and they took the game to Rochdale from then on until late in the second half when Rochdale replicated the Swansea goal when Dale skipper Gareth Griffiths out jumped his marker to head home from a Dave Flitcroft cross 2 minutes before the half time interval.

Just as the players came out after half time, the Rochdale fans were shocked to see a substitution before the 75th minute when Darren Hockenhull came on to replace Rory Patterson who had struggled to get into the game in the first half.

The substitute had a great claim for a penalty turned down minutes later when he thought he was tripped in the box but the referee decided against it much to the disbelief of the WMG fans.  To be honest I couldn't really see it from my position in the Sandy but to be honest, I didn't really care which just basically sums up the way I and a lot of other fans are feeling.

Rochdale went close a couple of minutes later when a thunderous Lee McEvilly shot got palmed away by Cutler. 

Swansea took the lead again on 69 minutes when Marc Richards got beyond Dale keeper Matt Gilks to poke the ball home from a Leon Britton cross.  The on loan West Ham midfielder had been somewhat of a pain in the arse for Dale all day was running the play for Swansea despite getting stick from the Sandy Lane due to him being possibly the smallest person in the world.

The 2nd Swansea goal sparked some movement on the bench as Paul Connor replaced Stephen Hill.  However, Rochdale were unable to create many chances at all from then on and it was mainly Swansea who had the play until around the last 5 minutes.  Kevin thingy got a treat today as he doubled his usual amount of time on the pitch when he replaced Matt Doughty for the remaining 3 minutes of the game!  And people say that he doesn't get a chance??  RUBBISH!  He got 3 minutes, what more can you ask for??

Basically Swansea are a team we should be aiming to get a comfortable 3 points off but once again we come in second best against a team lower than ourselves, if that's possible, at home!

Paul Simpson has tried his best at the club, there is no doubt about that at all and his playing ability has been vital while he has been here and he has got us some much needed cup money but the league table does lie contrary to what people believe, in the sense that we are easily the worst team in the league and had it not been for the confidence we had from the playoff's we would have struggled early doors and been relegated by now!  Paul Simpson must not be allowed to remain at the club as there is only one direction we are heading in while he is here and it aint the way we bloody should be heading.  How can a team that should have been challenging for the title, or at the very very least automatic promotion, go to being 20th in the league? 

Simpson Out!

Ratings:

Matthew Gilks 6 Not a lot to do except pick the ball out of the net

Wayne Evans 6 Defended ok and some his passes up the field were decent too

Stephen Hill 7 One of the better players for me.  Looked very comfortable on the ball

Gareth Griffiths 6 Scored a good header and defended well at times

Simon Grand 7 Another good performance.  Only went wrong once from memory and he made up for it straight away

Rory Patterson 5 Never got into the game at all

Matthew Doughty 7 Good game from Buzz today, must have been his dislike for the Welsh

David Flitcroft 6 Got stuck in well but apart from that didn't really notice him

Chris Beech 6 Struggled to get forward and was left defending all to often

Clive Platt 6 Played some decent knock downs at times but his lack of effort at times is very disappointing

Lee McEvilly 6 One effort on goal but didn't do anything else.  Unable to read Platty's knock downs like Trig would

Subs  

Darren Hockenhull 6 Could have had a penalty and looked to get forward as much as possible to get crosses in but they were few and far between

Paul Connor 6 Why only give our top scorer and best chance of a goal 20 mins?  Its not on!

Kevin Whats-his-name 6 This little lad came on for 3 minutes, need I go on?

Photo: Action Images

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