 Sunday, 13th Jan 2008 13:36 Peanuts, Doritos, breakdowns, a penalty and the second best away win of the season all made for an excellent Saturday watching Rochdale. We came up against a total different team to the Wycombe of last season. There wasn’t a Tommy Mooney to terrorise us this time, neither were there a Kevin Betsy or a Jermaine Easter to cause us problems at will.
Instead, it was Keith Hill, who once again delivered what he so often preaches. There is no fear, home or away. And the pitch has the same markings, it’s the same size, and we’re the same team. So as the manager says, why shouldn’t we play away like we should do at home? And with the style of attacking football that we played straight away from kick off, if we didn’t leave Adams Park with all three points, it would have been a crime.
An entertaining trip starting from a mix up of mince and steak pies, blood being drawn from a flying cd, the car running out of petrol at a services near Oxford and unsportsmanlike amount of foul play in Harrop’s quiz. It was an achievement for us to even get to Adams Park. But we did, and it was certainly worth it, in the end.
A return for midfielder David Perkins and a debut for loan signing Rene Howe were the only changes to Rochdale’s starting line up. The only other surprise was that Ben Muirhead, fresh from his appearance with the Reserves in midweek, was named on the bench for Dale.
It was a strange start to the game, with neither sides attacks really paying off. Wycombe’s Sergio Torres showed how good a player he is with some intelligent runs and skinning Dale defenders whenever he could. Fortunately, we now know why he isn’t a striker, as his finishing wasn’t really up to standards.
The remainder of the half was frustrating to say the least, we were in control, which was the total opposite to last season’s trip to Adams Park. But none of our chances were really paying off. The only real highlights in the first half for Dale were coming close to scoring from a couple of Perkins set-pieces and the Wycombe defenders hacking Higginbotham down after being fed up of him running them ragged all half.
It was the second half that most supporters will be talking about for the next few days however. With Dale stepping it up a couple of gears right from the whistle, looking determined to make the possession we were enjoying count. Alfie found himself free to have a run at goal, but his lay back to Howe left a lot to be desired as the Wycombe defenders managed to get rid with ease.
The pass of the match came soon after with Doolan setting Jonah loose with a class through ball, but the captain chose to take the ball out wide instead. With the move seemingly dead in the water, it came to everyone’s surprise when the ball eventually fell to debutant Howe’s feet. With the goal at the mercy, it seemed harder for Howe to miss, but that’s what he did, with the ball flying over Fielding’s net. With Howe, and all of the 251 travelling Rochdale supporters, holding their heads in their hands.
And if you thought that Doolan’s pass was impressive. The turning point of the game was when David McCracken’s flick on from a Russell Martin free-kick was kept out by another spectacular save by Sam Russell. James Spencer must be wondering how on earth he’s going to get back in the team with Russell pulling off saves like that.
With opportunities all falling in dominant Rochdale’s favour, Paul Lambert decided he needed to change his time around. With John Sutton, Sergio Torres and Tommy Doherty being replaced with Leon Knight, Martin Bullock and Stefan Oakes respectively. Hill decided that his pack needed shuffling to, with Kallum Higginbotham being replaced with Ben Muirhead.
As the match drew on, Wycombe were starting to knock on the door with a Stefan Oakes free kick coming close. But just as Wycombe thought they were turning the screw, Dale hit them on the break with Wycombe defender Craig Woodman failing to deal with a ball into the area. His hesitance allowed substitute Ben Muirhead to steal in from behind, with the defender felling Muirhead and the Linesman flagging for a Rochdale penalty.
After a couple of minutes were wasted as the Wycombe players tried to get the referee to change his decision. Dale left back, Tom Kennedy, stepped up, and coolly sent on loan Blackburn Rovers ‘keeper Frank Fielding the wrong way. 1-0 the score and 1-0 it would stay.
Four minutes of stoppage time were not enough for Wycombe to get themselves back into the game, despite their own shout for a penalty, but the Referee disagreed with the home support’s shouts and soon blew for full time.
My man of the match - Sam Russell.
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