We won! We won! We won! Dale stormed into the second round of the FA Cup beating Peterboro 3-2 at Spotland. Despite a late Posh fight back, Dale held on for the victory.
What a difference a week makes. Is it safe to say maybe that Dale are back!? Well judging by the first half performance today then its a definitely yes. Dale destroyed their higher division opponents, and cruised into a 3-0 goal lead. A late Posh rally was not enough though and Dale are through!
Lee Duffy was back in the side on the right of midfield, in place of Lee McEvilly who was on the bench, alongside Kev Townson - the subject of a lot of transfer talk lately.
Dale stormed into the lead on just 3 minutes. A wonderful carved through ball from Beech saw Connor one on one with the advancing keeper and he deftly chipped it into the corner of the net. Please can we see more passing like that! Top quality.
Not soon later and Dale had doubled their lead. Simmo struck a free kick that deflected for a corner. His corner was met at the near post by Clive Platt, who guided the ball home with his head. Platt was on fire, running the visiting defence ragged. Another mazy run moments later almost saw it become three but his cross-shot was deflected behind.
At the other end Posh were offering very little, though they did manage to strike the upright with a long range drive, though I'm sure Taffy will say he had it covered!
The second half saw Dale sit back on their lead, but before doing that they had time to add another. After a goal mouth scramble, Chris Beech was on hand to slam home the loose ball on the line. That seemed enough for Posh who promptly starting chanting 'Fry Out', helped along by the Dale fans of course!
Dale seemingly had the game won and really sat back on their lead, opting for long balls from now on instead of the crisp passing that had put us 3-0 up. Posh rallied and almost gave themselves a chance of a replay. Neil Edwards having to be on fine form to stop a close range drive.
A cross from the left came in from the ever impressive Farrell but a free header only found the up right. Goals seemed likely for the first time for the visitors though, and they weren't far away. Firstly Neale Fenn tapped in from close range, then Andy Clarke struck a low shot into the bottom corner.
Dale managed to hold on though and fully deserved their victory. A wonderful first half performance, saw us finally taking our chances . More of the same please next week, and I'm sure the problems will slowly start to drift away. Up The Dale!