Rochdale travelled to Brunton Park to take on the bottom team Carlisle but Paul Simpson saw to it that he had the last word on proceedings as they left 3-2 winners

Paul Simpson came back to haunt Rochdale today as his bottom of the table side Carlisle beat Rochdale 3-2 at Brunton Park this afternoon after Dale went 3-0 down in the first half and an awful performance was witnessed by the excellent away following.  Dale came very close to snatching a point but had we done so it would have been very undeserved.

The kick-off was delayed half an hour due to a very bad looking accident on the Motorway on the way there leaving us stuck in traffic for 2 hours and with many other fans stuck in traffic, the game was delayed.

Dale went into the game having to make an enforced change as Michael Simpkins was suspended with Stephen Hill replacing him at left back and Dale had Lee McEvilly back from international duty and he went into the starting team ahead of Kevin Townson.  The Dale team looked like this.  Gilks in net, Evans and Stephen Hill at full back with Grand and Burgess at centre back.  Bertos and Doughty on the wings with new loan signing Brannan and McClare in midfield and Evil went back up front to partner Connor.

Carlisle care-taker boss and ex Dale manager (term used loosely!) Paul Simpson decided to play himself from the start in this game to try and get his own back on the club he nearly sent to the conference last season.  This must have had an effect on the Dale players and it was a very nervous start to the game by Rochdale and on 9 minutes the inevitable happened, Simpson scored as his long range effort found the back of the net as it did a fair few times when had the blue of Rochdale on following a deflection!  This sent the Carlisle fans barmy with chants of Paul Simpson's Blue and White army!  Will be interesting to see if they are still singing that at Christmas!!

Carlisle continued to pressure and with Dale looking as bad as they have done since Mr Simpson was in charge, a 2nd goal wasn't too far away and guess who was at the heart of the goal?......yeah you guessed it, SimNO!  His freekick was pounced on by Henderson who's effort rebounded to Foran via the crossbar and Foran turned it in on 16 minutes to once again send the Carlisle fans crazy.  Mr Simpson's reaction to the Dale fans will not be forgotten and I look forward to the home tie!

Rochdale weren't satisfied with conceding 2 goals, we had to make it 3 and due to some disgraceful defending which Hill played a big part in, Carlisle made it 3-0 on 22 minutes when Brendan McGill scored a simple goal after he found himself in a ridiculous amount of space following a good cross and he struck it home past Gilks into the far bottom corner.

Daryl Burgess picked up an injury just before the half time break and he was replaced by Gareth Griffiths.

Dale went in at half time 3-0 down and the fans booed them off the park and rightfully so following what we had witnessed.

Rochdale made 1 substitution at half time with Kevin Townson replacing Matt Doughty and making a 4-3-3 formation. 

With Dale desperate to get back in the game they began to attack more but Carlisle nearly made it 4-0 had it not been for Matt Gilks.  Some shocking marking left Foran totally in the clear and his close range header went straight at Gilks who turned it over the bar.

Lee McEvilly found it hard going and wasn't half as effective as we know he can be and he was replaced half way through the second half by Patrick McCourt who had arrived back at Spotland following his trial spell at Norwich City.

Paul Simpson left the pitch as he substituted himself, no doubt just to get the applause he wanted from the Carlisle fans and this sparked Rochdale into playing some football and not the rubbish we had witnessed while SimNO was on the pitch.

Dale began to play some decent stuff and with 15 minutes left they found themselves back in the game when Wayne Evans found Paul Connor with a good long pass and Paul Connor smashed it home with a strike similar to the strikes witnessed when he first joined!

Rochdale clawed another goal back just a minute later when Kevin Townson, you know, him who SimNO never played, scored his 3rd goal of the season as he headed home a Leo Bertos corner to send the Dale fans mad and give them a spark of hope that we could still obtain something from the game!

Rochdale should have grabbed an equaliser shortly after when Stephen Hill was put clean through but he managed to blast his effort miles over the bar to the disappointment of the Dale following.  Not a good day for Hill at all!

Dale went close again in the dying seconds when Sean McClare's shot was saved on the line when it looked to be going in but unfortunately it stayed that way to drop Dale to 9th in the table but Paul Simpson's side still stay rooted to the foot of the table, oh the heart bleeds!

Ratings:

Matt Gilks 6 Good save in the second half but kicking was woeful

Wayne Evans 6 Got dragged out of position too much leaving Burgess and Grand with lots to do

Stephen Hill 4 Awful, Michael Simpkins will be welcomed back!

Simon Grand 6 Not too bad

Daryl Burgess 6 Same as Grand but he went off injured

Leo Bertos 6 Looked lively but didn't have much impact

Matt Doughty 6 Went off at half time, looked ok but had to do Hill's job as well

Sean McClare 6 Not enough options open to him or Brannan and they ended up passing too each other too often

Ged Brannan 6 See above

Paul Connor 7 Looked very lively in the second half but is still going down too easy.  Great goal though

Lee McEvilly 6 Ineffective today, didn't get into the game

Subs:  

Gareth Griffiths 7 Impressive, ventured up front late on and looked quite good

Kevin Townson 7 Played well, scored again and was ever threatening

Patrick McCourt 7 Came in for some VERY harsh criticism, people want him to be Zidane and want too much from him.  Lifted Dale's performance and looked quite dangerous when on the ball

Photo: Action Images

MK Dons Polls