Dale slumped to yet another defeat. This time crashing at Oxford 2-0. The writing is one the wall for Simmo seemingly, fans have run out of patience.
Well it was the few brave souls (230 apparently) who braved the cold, and the long trip down to Oxford, who saw yet another feeble attempt at football from Dale. Beaten yet again, by another average side. The two new loan signings went straight into the side. Sheriff at centre back, and Melaugh in the middle of the pitch.
It started quite well for Dale, Simpson striking a long range shot over the bar from outside the area over the bar. But then our midfield seemingly gave up, began sitting deeper and deeper and simply invited the pressure. Edwards once again had to be alert to keep the opposition out.
Oxford took the lead after just 17 minutes. Wayne Evans failed to clear, and following a neat one-two move James Hunt hit a fierce shot into the bottom corner to give the home side a deserved lead. Not soon later and a thunderous shot from 30 yards rattled the Dale woodwork also. Could Dale find a way back?
Well the answer was an obvious and resounding 'NO'. The second half saw a slight improvement from Dale. Evil managed to run past about 6 men before being blatantly obstructed in the area. Not a penalty as it was obstruction, but a free kick was not even awarded!
Moments later and Evil went off, Rory Patterson coming on down the right hand side. Dale began to get into the game more slightly. Connor had a free header that went straight at the keeper, and Simpson had a shot that the keeper parried upwards with one hand. But it was just not going to go in.
Oxford had a a great chance to extend their lead from a free kick on the edge of the area. But somehow Taffy managed to produce a wonderful diving save to keep it out. Their second goal wasn't far away though and it was again another well worked goal. Basham connected with his head from a cross and gave Taffy no chance.
Well that was that, Oxford sat back and took their win, Dale wandering around the pitch aimlessly hoping for some sort of consolation which was never going to come. Another day, another defeat. Things are looking bleak.
A special mention to Neil Edwards here. At the final whistle Taffy came sprinting from his goal at the opposite end to applaud the Dale fans, whilst the rest of the team simply walked off (though Simmo made a couple of them turn round to applaud). Its clearly hurting Taffy having to put up with this every week. The man is Dale through and through. Thanks for actually caring mate, you are the only one who seems to at the moment.
Not going to attempt going into the problems again, because basically there are too many to bother with. First time in god knows how long when even the most hardcore of Dale fans were resigned to booing the team off at the end. I'm sorry Paul, you have done your best mate, but time has run out for you.