Dale were held to a draw for the third time in a row in our home games with Cheltenham. The final score was 2-2 with Dale goals coming from Paul Wheatcroft and Kevin Townson.
Another tale of two halves for Dale. The first one saw Dale play some of the worst football seen in recent seasons. We were an absolute shambles at times, and Cheltenham were full value for their 1-0 half time lead. The goal came from a free-kick, whether it was a free-kick or not was irrelevant as the ball was swung in and Victory struck a volley into the net giving Marcus no chance.
Dale created hardly anything in the first half, our best chance falling when Jones and Ford (I think!) got in a tangle and the shot ended up being scuffed and the ball went out for a goal kick. The second half saw a marked improvement though it did take us a good ten minutes of it to really get going. There was always going to be more goals in the match, with both defences looking shaky.
Dale pulled back an equaliser when calamity keeper Steve book came flying to the edge of the six yard box to catch the ball, unfortunately for him he completely missed it and it fell to Wheatcroft who smashed into the open net. Disaster struck though just four minutes later. Paul Wheatcroft was given his marching orders following a lunge on a Cheltenham player. It was a second booking and in truth it was a bad tackle, but his first booking never should of been, so maybe he can feel a little hard done by.
Follwing this Dale made two substitutions. Kevin Townson and Dave Flitcroft replaced Tony Ford and Matt Doughty, as Dale employed a 4-3-2 formation in the search for a winner. We thought we had gotten it as well. Kevin Townson stormed into the Cheltenham box, and hit a tame shot, but somehow Book managed to let it slip under his body, before Townson ran around him and tapped the ball into the empty net.
Surely we couldn't let it slip. But once again Dale turned off and were punished by another late goal. It came at the WMG end, and whether or not it went in or not is disputable. From my vantage point some 100 yards away it certainly didn't look to, but I would say that wouldn't I! I'll leave it up to the fans in the WMG to clear up the issue.
With time running out Dale pushed for another winner, and in doing so left a lot of spaces at the back, and with better finishing Cheltenham may of come away with all three points. Clive Platt almost snatched a victory for Dale towards the end, as he tried to nick the ball over the advancing keeper, but Book was up to the challenge this time and caught the ball.
All in all, Dale were lucky to get a point. Not one of our better performances, in fact probably one of our worst. Cheltenham did well and may feel a little unlucky not to of taken all three points. At the end of the day though we managed to pull two goals out of nowhere and should of gone on to the win the game once establishing our lead with 10 man. It wasn't to be though, and as a result we are no longer top of the league.