Lee Thorpe was man of the match as Dale progressed to the third round having beat Carlisle 4-3 on penalties. Full match report online now...

Keith Hill opted to give Marcus Holness, Joe Thompson and Lee Thorpe their respective first starts of the season as Dale looked to bounce back from Saturday's defeat to Dagenham.

Starting XI: Russell, Holness, McArdle, Stanton, Kennedy, Thompson, Toner, Jones, Rundle, Thorpe and Dagnall (4-4-2).

Despite the likes of Dagnall and Thorpe causing the Carlisle defence plenty of problems early on, it was the visitors who took the lead after only four minutes.

Carlisle broke forward and with the Dale defence struggling to clear it's lines, Michael Bridges made no mistake when the ball fell to his feet, as he netted to put the Cumbrians one up.

And if anyone was under the impression that Dale's heads would drop with it being a tinpot cup, they were wrong as it took Dale just over five minutes to force their way back into the match.

Excellent work by Dale's midfield allowed Rundle to break down the right, with the winger sending a 'decent' cross in Thorpe's direction with the striker heading home from close range.

And only minutes after that, to the delight of every Rochdale fan/staff/player present at Spotland, Dagnall made it 2-1 when he capitalised on a poor back pass.

Evan Horwood attempted to send an awful pass back to goalkeeper Ben Williams who could do little as Dagnall stole the ball, leaving Williams and his defender behind, as he put the ball away to put Dale 2-1 ahead and deservedly so!

The tempo of the first fifteen minutes continued for the rest of the half with Danny Carlton and Danny Graham working well to gift Bridges a similar opportunity to the one he had taken earlier, however his dire effort went wide.

Russell reacted brilliantly to keep a Holness back pass from going in as Dale nearly shot themselves in the foot before the half time break.

Kennedy was replaced by Scott Wiseman at half time as Dale looked to build on their first half lead.

And we came close on multiple occasions throughout the half as Dagnall found himself goal side of Danny Livesey with only Ben Williams stopping him from getting his second of the night.

Adam Rundle was another player guilty of not making it safe for Dale as he scuffed an effort after Thompson had put in another difficult ball for the Carlisle defence to struggle with.

But with 20 minutes left, Carlisle got lucky, when substitute striker Gary Madine's shot took a fortunate deflection off Holness to leave Russell with no chance.

Adam Le Fondre replaced Dagnall minutes after United had equalised as Dale pressed in vain to try and regain the advantage.

He made an impact straight away too as he forced an excellent save from Ben Williams as Dale continued to carve out chances.

But with Rundle narrowly missing, after beating his marker again on the left and a long range effort from Thompson just going wide of Williams' post.

Holness was replaced by Clark Keltie in the final seconds of the game as Dale prepared for the penalty shoot out.

The match then went to penalties, but before I talk about them, I'd to mention Carlisle's substitute, Grant Smith's antics in their penalty area after he claimed to be fouled by Thompson.

It was even more laughable that referee Nigel Miller decided to speak to Thompson rather than Smith as it was blatantly obvious to those behind the net who was in the wrong!

Keltie and Le Fondre put the first two away before Carlisle substitute Grant Smith's effort was smashed off the post (it would seem the Football Gods don't take kindly to cheating...)

Captain Gary Jones and Ciaran Toner made no mistake with their penalties either, with Toner's being an excellent effort, as Hackney also hit the post for Carlisle with Dale going through to the third round of the JPT with a 4-3 win on penalties.

It was a deserved win for Dale with Lee Thorpe being rightly voted as man of the match for his role on the night.

More of the same on Friday night please Dale!!

Photo: Action Images

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