Two goals in injury time were enough to separate the two sides as the unbeaten start to 2011 continued.
Three years ago, Dave Penney brought his Darlington side to Spotland to battle with Keith Hill’s Dale side in the Play Offs as worthy favourites. However, ultimate disappointment with the Quakers and subsequent revelations about the size of the wage budget he worked with, followed by a dismal spell at Oldham and a poor start at Bristol Rovers, and that Play Off visit appears nothing but a flash in the pan right now. That time as Donny manager when he was considered one of the brightest managerial prospects in the game must seem a long time ago.
There were four survivors from that Play Off final amongst the line ups, with three of them trading sides. Lining up against Scott Wiseman and Jason Kennedy was former loan striker Rene Howe who despite looking rather dapper in his pink boots has somewhat bulked up since his spell with Dale. To date, he has played for six different sides in three different divisions since joining Peterboro, so its perhaps no surprise that he’s allowed himself to get out of shape.
It was something of a disappointment to say that the least that little over 2000 Dale supporters turned up to watch this game. With a lack of Champions League TV meant it could have only been the Gypsy Wedding show that saw us lose out to those preferring the comfort of their own armchair, and whilst the last three seasons has seen the glamour of a promotion push, battling it out within the top ten of League One pretty much means that this is as good as it has ever been for Dale.
But thankfully this is a Dale side that is not judged on the number of attending supporters, and fresh from five points on the road, it was back to Spotland on a pitch that impressed many of those on the sidelines who were no doubt expecting the worst after recent weeks of poor weather.
The first half was a decent affair, but one which failed to ever really get out of first gear and it was to few people’s surprise that it ended as goalless.
It was the home side that came closest to scoring, with the best chance coming in the opening few minutes when a Holness header looked destined for the back of the net as Dale attacked the Pearl Street end of the ground. It took a acrobatic save from Luke Daniels, who was a Dale player for about twenty minutes in December, to prevent Holness getting his first goal for the club. It was a great header, but an even better save.
After that it was pretty much like the early rounds of a boxing game, with both sides trading punches without ever really threatening that knock out blow. There was a chance here and a chance there, but the “Ooh” count from the crowd wasn’t particularly high.
Rovers didn’t offer much but there was one heart in the mouths moment from a Dale perspective when their striker Hoskins went down in the box. Looked a close call, but he was probably looking for it just a little bit too much to convince the referee that he’d been a victim of foul play.
The second half proved to be a much more open affair, and either side could have been the ones to have ended the deadlock. If truth be told, it was Rovers who were having the better of things, with a few half chances. There were a couple of panicky moments at the back, and Hoskins would have easily grabbed the lead had he been able to keep his effort down. These were dangerous moments for Dale supporters.
But with the visitors having the edge on chances, those missed opportunities came back to bite them on their backside, when Craig Dawson scored for Dale for the second goal in successive games. His goal came courtesy of a Nicky Adams free kick and from just inside the Bristol penalty area, his diving header gave Daniels no chance whatsoever.
If that was a blow for the Pirates, they had a further blow just a couple of minutes earlier when Bolger was given his marching orders. His first booking had come from a cynical foul on Chris O’Grady, and second saw him hack out as the same player as O’Grady launched a Dale counter attack. The only surprise in the entire ground was that Bolger went through the motions of waiting for the referee to bring out his cards.
So 1-0 up, and the opposition down to ten men, it should have been plain sailing, but our record against depleted opposition remains the one possible black spot during the Keith Hill reign, and it proved to be our (temporary) downfall once again, as within three minutes of going behind numerically, Rovers had restored parity to the scoresheet.
Their equaliser came courtesy of Will Hoskins who was a threat all night long. Played in by Howe, he fired a low drive from the edge of the box that was beyond the reach of Fon Williams to make it 1-1, and with ten minutes to go, any result from this point was possible. Judging the second half as a whole, you have to say that the goal was deserved for Bristol who had been guilty of missing a number of chances in what we said before was a very open half of football.
It would have been easy to let heads drop, but Dale kept pushing further forward and had a number of chances to win it in the last ten minutes.
There appears to be a certain area of the Spotland pitch, where we are completely unplayable. Just to the right hand side of the penalty box down by the touchline at the Sandy Lane end of the ground, we seem to be able to do whatever we want. Whether it was Adams, J-Lo or Chris O’Grady, we seem to be able to waltz our way through, no matter who the opposition or who has the ball.
One such move from there saw the ball cut back to Jason Kennedy who was lurking with intent at or around the penalty spot. Despite having far more room and time than what he probably realised he had, he let fly when he could have controlled it, endangering only the passic traffic with his effort.
Another move from the same source saw Akpa Akpro try to direct it into the back of the net but his effort went whistling just wide. It wasn’t looking to be our night, especially when Widdowson wasted another golden chance, appearing startled when he found himself with just the keeper to beat.
But one minute into injury time, the pressure told and Dale regained the lead with what proved to be somewhat controversial. The ball broke to Akpa Akrpo who fired home from close range, but mass protests followed from the Rovers side who claimed (possibly with some justification) that our French import was in an offside position when he fired home. Initial protests involved just one defender, before the rest of the Bristol side suddenly felt aggrieved a couple of seconds later. Either way it was 2-1 to Dale.
But not for long.
For a couple of minutes and a slight scare from a Rovers attack later, we had extended our lead further with the fourth injury time goal in our last three games. Matt Done was fed through with a clear chase for the ball with Rovers’ former Dale keeper Luke Daniels. They’d have been better off with Helen Daniels, as his attempted clearance was tapped off his toe by Done, before our former Hereford man ran clear to fire from out wide, with victory now assured.
There was nowt but seconds remaining at this stage, and the restart was just a case of going through the motions, with the unbeaten run now stretching to nine games.
2011 continues to be a fantastic year for Keith Hill’s men, and for those still seeing this campaign as a relegation battle, sixteenth bottom isn’t a bad place to be, and that ten point cushion looks rather sweet if you ask me.
Perhaps more importantly with this victory, we increased the gap between ourselves and one of those sides fighting to stay in this division, with Rovers having to almost make up a point a game for the rest of the season if we are to finish below during this season. Argue amongst yourselves whether this is pessimism, small mindedness and a lack of ambition or whether this is common sense, reality and verisimilitude. Perhaps a lifetime spent battling amongst the 90-somethingth clubs hasn’t fully gone away yet.
Three points off the Play Offs? Let’s not get carried away.