My New Years hangover has finally gone so here is the report from the Carlisle game yesterday. Hopefully the New Year will give us a few results like what we were getting before December started!!

Well thank the Lord that December has finally bloody finished!  A horrendous run of results has seen us slip to a miserable 9th place having lost every single match in the month!

The Dale made their second trip out of the country in a week, this time Scotland was the destination as we took on Simmo's lot at Brunton Park.  As predicted beforehand though, he went away the happier as his side won 2-1 despite being outplayed for large spells.

Griffiths suffered a back injury at Wrexham so missed the game and Holt was still out through suspension though numerous rumours about Grant Holt moving to Hull in the next couple of days might mean he won't play again for us.  Dale lined up with:  Gilksy, The Regulator Warren G, McArdle, Galli, Goodall, Fake Tales of Neil Brisco, Jones, Ernie, Lambert, Lionel Blair and Tait.

The first chance of the game went to Simmo's lot as a Lumsden free kick was very well saved by Gilks but with only a couple of minutes gone, Rochdale took a surprise lead, well it was a surprise to me!  Sturrock picked the ball up on the edge of the box and did a very nice turn and shot with his left peg into the far corner past the Carlisle keeper.

This shut the ASBO kids up next to us for a bit at least but with the Dale fans giving it "Simmo Out" etc, I was always pretty sure that it would come back to bite us!

Dale continued to create chances and should have taken more than the one they did.  Sturrock went close again and Goodall, Jones and Brisco weren't afraid of striking from distance but they failed to test the keeper although Rickie Lambert did make Westwood work with an excellent effort midway through the half.

Simpson decided to change things and brought off Raphael Nade who to be quite frank, had been appalling at best which amused the Rochdale fans who let him know he was going off because he wasn't very good but it worked for Carlisle.

The first half came to and end and Rochdale had bossed proceedings and were fully deserving of their lead.

The second half was a different story as Carlisle came out and enjoyed large amounts of possession and they got the goal they were desperately seeking on the hour and it came from a familiar face.  Former Dale loanee Danny Livesey finished from close range as a corner wasn't cleared properly.  Que the ASBO kids chanting EASY.

After that, Rochdale dominated again and should have scored a few times but it didn't look like it was going to happen for us.

Parkin made a change that at the time I thought was silly because we needed a goal.  Lee Cartwright came on for Paul Tait who had done ok again

Jonah went close with a couple of excellent efforts which were superbly saved by Westwood who before had looked absolutely awful!

Blair Sturrock had run himself into the ground and was taken off with about ten minutes remaining as Clive Moyo Modise made his fourth sub appearance for the club.

Dale couldn't find the breakthrough and in the end, Carlisle stole a winner against the run of play.  Dale had been in control of possession but I think it was Rory McArdle who gave away possession and Michael Bridges took advantage by going round Gilks and finishing it.

The game finished 2-1 and like the Wrexham game, we came out annoyed that we hadn't won the game as we'd deserved to take all three points. 

Hopefully, we can forget December and the New Year can bring us a bit of luck because we're going to need it now if we want to go up.

It will be interesting to see what January brings in terms of transfer dealings because rumours are all over the shop that Grant Holt is on his way to Hull so we may have a bit of brass to spend on strengthening the defence and bringing a striker in.  We shall have to wait and see.

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 7 Made a couple of decent stops and had no chance with the goals I don't think

Warren Goodhind 6 McGill caused him all sorts of problems and it looked like he struggled against him to be fair

Alan Goodall 7 Good game, got forward well and also defended well which is something he doesn't usually get credited for

TONY GALLIMORE 8 Excellent I thought.  His distribution on the whole was very good and the amount of interceptions he made was superb

Rory McArdle 6 Got caught out for their second I think and although he made a few decent tackles, we still look better with Griffiths there

Neil Brisco 7 Much improved and I was impressed with him although I think there were only two of us in the away end that were by all accounts.  Made numerous superb tackles and looked like the player we thought we were getting when he signed

Gary Jones 7 Ran his arse off and had our best chances in the second half

Ernie Cooksey 7 Got stuck in well and tried to link the midfield and the strikers and did well for the most part

Blair Sturrock 8 Excellent performance.  Got a deserved goal and caused a lot of problems for their defence.  Keep it up Lionel!

Rickie Lambert 7 Like Brisco, much improved.  He caused problems and had a couple of excellent efforts on goal

Paul Tait 7 Was a handful for their defence and was brought off slightly early I thought

Subs:  

Lee Cartwright 6 Tried to get involved but was never really there on the right when needed

Clive Moyo-Modise 6 Not on long enough to show what he can do

Tommy Jaszczun 6 Only on for a couple of mins

Photo: Action Images

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