Match Report: Dale 3 Barnet 1

Spotland itself was looking a bit on the sparse side. We had a situation again where we'd have been better off giving the Barnet fans twenty quid each and telling them not to bother coming, as with comfortably less than a hundred making the journey they've probably made five or six times over the past couple of seasons.

Perhaps we're in the Barnet bad books for the postponements, or maybe they've seen the twenty quid admission price and thought they'd be better off handing it over at the Dog and Tin Whistle or wherever. Either way, it was a tiny following and if Barnet are only bringing eighty hardy souls with them, it might be time to play Spot the away fan by the time the likes of Dagenham come to town.

But the biggest worry was the absence of home supporters. Whatever way you looked at it, it was significantly down on last season. From the biggest feelgood factor that this club has ever had to many people not bothering in the space of three months is highly worrying, and if its not being addressed in the corridors of power, then what's the point?

There's been much talk during the week about whether the glass was half empty or half full, with the clean sheets at either end debated at length. As a card carrying member of the Optimist department, the pride in our two clean sheets lasted about sixty seconds into the game.

It was one of those moments of working out who was playing, who's on the bench, Barnet haven't brought many, should I have gone for a pee or not, oh Barnet have scored.

They started very lively, knocking it about and Adam Birchall volleyed it home for a tight angle. The silence was deafening. This wasn't supposed to happen.

The worrying aspect for me wasn't so much that we'd conceded a goal, but rather there was no reaction to it. For much of that first half, we were deservedly trailing, and the Bees could easily have added to that lead. They might not have carved out any out and out chances, but we were reliant on one or two last gasp challenges by the impeccable McArdle and Stanton.

Up front, we offered little. We huffed and we puffed, but the Barnet defence handled everything. Literally on some occasions, but the referee was determined all afternoon that he was not going to award a penalty. Even had one of our players been murdered by a Barnet defender, the best we could have hoped for was an indirect free kick.

But with just five minutes of the first half remaining, the metaphorical Sun came out, and everything became rosey in the Rochdale garden once again. It was Adam Rundle who got Dale back onto level terms, as he played a delicate 1-2 with Chris Dagnall before firing it with his right foot into the back of the net. Adam Rundle, top scorer.

And insert buses cliché here, as within a couple of minutes of getting our first goal, we had the lead, and what a way to do it! Chris Dagnall, who surprisingly had any energy at all to play this game after his heroics against Oldham in the week, was clearly fed up with being the provider and decided that it should be his name on top of the leading scorers list.

Dagnall was given the ball on the edge of the penalty box, and he surprised everyone in the ground by turning, shooting and scoring before anyone had even realised there was a chance on. It was a goal from out of nowhere, and when you're capable of doing stuff like that, nobody can stop you.

And so, after all the debate here and there during the week about our less than perfect start to the season, we found ourselves on the back of our worst showing so far and leading 2-1.

But if the first half had been a non event (certainly up until about 40 minutes), then the second half was a great example of how to control a game of football, and it was surprising that it only finished 3-1 to Dale such was our superiority over our North London rivals.

They didn't get a look in, and that lead was never, ever in danger, and Barnet certainly adopted the air of a side who didn't seem to bothered that they were getting beaten. For a side to be accepting defeat this early on in the season is very worrying. But that's not for us to care.

With Clark Keltie pulling all the strings in midfield, we were in total control.

Whilst Dagnall's goal was without doubt a moment of individual brilliance, Shaw's goal had a touch of class about it. It may have come straight from the John Beck handbook as Samuel Russell launched it forward (but we know it was a pass rather than a long hoof), it was a question of waiting for it to drop for Shaw who had position himself perfectly.

It was probably the hardest of the three goal to score, as with the ridiculous state of Shaw being under pressure after just one appearance for the club, he had possibly too much time. There was no relying simply on instinct, this was a lad knowing that his first real chance was on his way, and that he was going to be judged on it.

It had the potential to go skimming off his boot, or end up stopping the traffic on Sandy Lane. It didn't. He took it perfectly, and volleyed it first time past Beckwith in the Barnet goal.

The remainder of the game then became the Alfie show, as our late substitute became undoubtedly our best player, and with a bit of luck, we could have had a return of the hat trick show that we were blessed with last season. But the referee was sticking with his no penalty rule from earlier in the game, and we continued to be denied.

But there was absolutely no chance of Barnet making any sort of comeback. Our players were playing with a smile on their faces as they knew full well that the win had been secured and nothing was going to happen to take that away from us.

And so we're up and running. The pressure of not having won yet, or scored a goal was consigned to the history books thanks largely to two players who faced calls to be dropped after the goalless draw with Oldham during the week.

The importance of this win cannot be underestimated, as with a string of tougher games to come, it would have made things very awkward to go into them without that first win of the season. Most important win of the season? I'll tell you in May.