Dale's promotion waggon was back on track tonight thanks to goals from Adam Le Fondre and Adam Rundle. Full match report online now...
Darlington fans made the same mistake as Brentford fans made last season, with ex Darlo trio Scott Wiseman, Clark Keltie and Adam Rundle all receiving negative and sometimes hostile treatment from the home fans.
But their actions came back to haunt them as all three played key roles in tonight's win.
Keith Hill shuffled his team at the start with Adam Rundle and Adam Le Fondre both making their first starts for a while. Youngsters Joe Thompson and Will Buckley were both rested on the bench whilst Rory McArdle didn't make the first XI due to injury.
Darlington: Dean Gerken, Neil Austin, Alan White, Steve Foster, Ryan Valentine, David Poole, Jason Kennedy, Ricky Ravenhill, Franz Burgmeier, Liam Hatch and Pawel Abbott.
Rochdale: Frank Fielding, Scott Wiseman, Simon Ramsden, Nathan Stanton, Tom Kennedy, Nicky Adams, Gary Jones, Ciaran Toner, Adam Rundle, Adam Le Fondre and Lee Thorpe.
The game started quietly with the first chance of the game coming from a misplaced Nicky Adams pass.
But, fortunatley for Dale, Jason Kennedy couldn't take full advantage of the gift with his effort flying over Fielding's crossbar.
Dale caused themsleves more problems minutes later as they failed to deal with a Darlington free kick, with the second cross finding Pawel Abbott who's cross/shot just evaded the also unmarked Alan White at Fielding's far post.
The Darlo pressure continued as another free kick caused problems for Dale's defence with Scott Wiseman frantically scrambling the ball away before Abbott or Foster could force it into the net.
But Dale nealy took the lead when captain Gary Jones lofted shot from the left wing nearly sneaked past Gerken's far post with around 20 minutes gone.
And then came the first turning point of the game, as Abbott made a serious error of judgement when he tried to go around Simon Ramsden instead of volleying his shot first time and this cost Darlington dearly.
Ramsden read what Abbott was attempting to pull off and cleared the ball up field, which allowed Dale to burst forward with Adam Le Fondre taking on his marker inside the box, before rifling past Gerkin to put Dale 1-0 up.
Dale's defending of corners nearly cost us immediatley after with Abbott's powerful header deflecting off Stanton, who had absotlutley no idea where the ball was, with Jason Kennedy heading the rebound straight at Fielding.
As the first half was coming to a close it became apparent that Jones was unable to continue after picking up a groin injury from defending a Darlington long ball and he was replaced by Clark Keltie.
Booing aside, there was little else to talk about during the first half apart from another booking for Stanton due to dissent.
There was no changes at half time, although there was soon after as Liam Hatch was stretchered off for the second time this season with Danny Carlton replacing him.
It didn't take Darlington long to get back into the game once play had restarted, with Abbott finally capitalising at Dale's weakness when it comes to defending corners, with the unchallenged striker heading in the equaliser with ease.
However, Dale's heads didn't drop and we scored within seconds of Darlington's equaliser thanks to some terrific play by Adam Le Fondre.
The striker made another of his several intelligent runs of the night, waiting to cross at the right moment, leaving Adam Rundle to volley Dale back infront, silencing all his critics in the home end at the same time.
Darlington were frustrated at home the game was panning out and you could tell this clearly from 10 seconds of play after Dale's second goal which should have seen them reduced to 9 men.
Darlington's left back should have walked for his two footed lunge at Nicky Adams for a start, althought the referee ruled it to be a lawful tackle and let Darlington play on.
However, Toner won possesion back immeadiatley from, only to then find himself flat out on the floor thanks to another two-footed lunge, this time from Ricky Ravenhill.
The referee couldn't let the second challenge to unpunished and rightly sent the midfielder off, but he should have been joining the left back for an early shower in my view.
Darlo manager Dave Penney made a change straight after the dismissal of Ravenhill, with Tim Ryan replacing David Poole.
But his changes couldn't hold back the Dale onslaught, as the players tried their hardest to put the game out of sight towards the end of the game.
We couldn't find that elusive third goal though, with Lee Thorpe coming the closest as his effort was cleared off the line.
We survived the 9 minutes of stoppage time to take all three points at the Darlington Whatever It's Called Arena and now sit quite comfortably in 4th ahead of this weekend's clash with Grimsby.
Match Ratings:
Fielding 7
Wiseman 7
Ramsden 8
Stanton 6
Kennedy 7
Adams 7
Jones 7
Toner 7
Rundle 8
Alfie 9
Thorpe 8
Substitute:
Keltie 7