Another home game we couldn't win but another goal fest as Dale drew 3-3 in the proverbial 6 pointer at home to Wigan despite being down to 10 men for more than half the game!
Watching Dale is mental isn't it?! We must be the maddest team to watch in the football league.
I'd still not recovered from Tuesday's 4-4 draw away at Charlton and now we had Wigan Athletic at home and had to take the good parts of Tuesday into the game.
We don't like playing at home do we? Our record is shocking. We have just 1 win at home all season. Just 1 win in 14 games prior to todays fixture but today was a massive opportunity to end that record. God knows the pressure would be on BBM if we didn't. You could easily argue any other manager would have been given their P45 for such a poor record but so far, our away record is keeping him in a job you'd have to say. Another result like the last one we got against Wigan would do very nicely! Any win would do nicely!
Rochdale's injury and fitness woes continued with the news that Ryan McLaughlin, who had been superb on Tuesday, was out of the line-up again with Done replacing him. News that instantly made my heart sink. Add to that the fact that McShane, who had been impressive a week ago when he came on couldn't even make the bench this week. That saw us line-up with Gavin Bazunu in net, Jimmy Keohane and Matt Done at full back with Jim McNulty partnering Haydon Roberts in the middle. In midfield were Aaron Morley, Matty Lund and Ollie Rathbone while Kwadwo Baah joined the attack of Stephen Humphrys and Jake Beesley. On the bench were Jay Lynch, Ryan MCLaughlin, Joe Dunne, Ethan Brierley, Stephen Dooley, Lewis Bradley and Alex Newby.
Incidentally, Wigan could only name 4 subs out of 7 and had no sub keeper.
Wigan got the first half under way with Dale shooting towards the Pearl Street to start with.
Dale started well and with just a couple if minutes gone could have gone ahead. A great break from Humprhys fed in Baah who got into the box before laying off to Rathbone who laid off to Morley who had a glorious chance to hit the target but he dragged his effort wide when he should have done better really.
Just a couple of minutes earlier and Dale could have been behind. Bazunu failed to deal with a low cross, the ball ended up with a Wigan player on the edge of the box and his shot was saved and then cleared off the line by Matt Done.
Another bit of excitement from Baah saw him cut inside before being clumsily brought down just outside the box by new signing Darikwa. How he avoided a booking is beyond me!
Up stepped Stephen Humprhys and his initial shot was blocked by the wall but he got the rebound, shifted onto his left and finished it past the keeper via a deflection to give Rochdale the lead! It was 1-0 to Rochdale.
In typical Dale fashion though, you blink and we've conceded! Another counter attack allowed Wigan to break and having only half cleared the danger, Dan Garndner was able to cross from Keoahne's side and Kyle Joseph finished past Bazunu with a neat first time finish to make it 1-1 with less than 10 minutes gone.
Absolutely infuriating.
Wigan took the lead on 16 minutes in really simple fashion. A long ball forward was brilliantly taken down by Will Keane and he thread the ball through to Callum Lang and he turned Matt Done far too bloody easily and was left with a simple finish past Bazunu. Part of me wondered if Bazunu could have done more but the way Done was turned was pretty pathetic in all honesty.
Wigan were looking like they wanted it more in the middle as Dale's awful home run looked set to continue and our home form is going to get us relegated.
The visitors had a shout for a penalty when Lang went down as a cross came in and at the time I thought no chance but having seen a replay, I'm not convinced it wasn't a push by Roberts.
Tom Pearce put in a stunning cross which found Callum Lang who headed narrowly wide. Another one we got away with, especially as Done had got the wrong side of Lang anyway.
Another frustrating half watching Dale. Morley receives the ball, tries to switch it, we get nowhere. McNulty gets the ball, tries a long ball forward and it goes out. Almost every single time. Rathbone had been anonymous. Baah wasn't able to get into the get like we'd want him to as Wigan were doubling up on him. Awful to watch.
Matty Lund blocked a shot while he was down on the floor as Wigan continued to push forward and put pressure on Dale. Corner after corner and Dale under the cosh almost felt like it was inevitable that we were going to concede again. We certainly didn't look like f*****g scoring!
A tangle in the middle of the pitch saw McNulty kick out at Joseph and the referee correctly sent McNulty off for the offence which was right in front of the Wigan bench. The commentary team said it was nonsense but for me, it's a clear red card and Dale were in deep deep trouble.
Half time and Dale were 2-1 down and down to ten men.
Dale made a change for the second half which saw Kwadwo Baah sacrificed for Ryan McLauglin. Keohane moved to centre back with McLaughlin going to right back.
Wigan went close with the first action of the second half. Gardner broke and shot but his effort was heading wide and Joseph got on the end of it but couldn't steer it goalwards.
Matt Lund picked up his weekly booking.
Will Keane did well to turn past Keohane and his shot was turned over the bar by Bazunu.
There was no way Dale were getting anything from today.
Dale were going to make a change with 57 minutes gone, as Dooley was ready to come on for Lund who looked to be carrying a knock. Not that I wanted him to come on after his cock up on Tuesday night.
Before the sub was made Dale somehow got themselves back into the game!! A huge ball forward from Bazunu left Beesley to challenge the keeper and he got there ahead of the young keeper Evans and it found itself go in despite the best efforts of the Wigan defender who hurt himself in the process. A real route one goal from Dale to make it 2-2, a goal that came out of absolutely nothing! Goal Beesley, assist Bazunu!
Dooley did come on for Lund.
Kyle Joseph must have thought he'd scored when he got on the end of a ball from Darikwa and Keohane couldn't deal with it and Bazunu pulled off a stunning save but thankfully, the flag had gone up anyway!
Dale should have gone ahead. A great ball in from Done (I know!) found Dooley in space but his header was awful and drifted wide. A great chance to get back in front! A poor header and Dooley knew it!
And in typical Dale fashion, Dale paid for it. Wigan went ahead. Asgaard did well down the left and put the ball into the box and Keohane managed to clear off the line but it fell to Will Keane who, with his back to goal and three Dale defenders behind him, still managed to do 3 kick ups and finish past Bazunu. Simply not strong enough from the Dale defence. That made it 3-2 with just over 10 minutes left and surely too much for Dale to do now with ten men.
A real kick in the teeth and my laptop nearly ended up in the middle of the road in anger!
Wigan should have extended their lead when another great ball in from Pearce found the stretching foot of Asgaard whose connection went over the bar.
Dooley forced the keeper into a good save but Wigan countered and should have scored but for a last ditch foot in by Lund as 7 minutes of added time were shown. What a chance to confirm the win.
OOOOHH WOOOOOOWWW!
Another stoppage time equaliser, this time from the head of Stephen Humphrys. A brilliant cross from Ryan McLaughlin was superbly headed home by Humphrys who is fast becoming a Dale legend!
He even had time to blast over in the remaining few seconds in pursuit of a winner.
Another mentally exhausting game.
We cannot continue conceding the shit goals we do. We've got goals in us, plenty of them but if we can't defend then they mean very little.
Onto Tuesday night against Donny. God knows whats coming there!
PLAYER RATINGS:
Gavin Bazunu - 6 (Couple of decent saves and even got an assist!)
Jimmy Keohane- 6 (Bit better from Jimmy, got forward when at full back but not confident with him at centre back)
Jim McNulty - 3 (Long ball after long ball losing possession and then he effectively lost us the game by kicking out and getting sent off. As good a servant as he's been, I never want to have to see him play again)
Haydon Roberts - 6 (Thought he was better than his last couple of games but still had a tough game against the impressive Keane)
Matt Done - 5 (Awul for the Lang goal, put one good ball in the box and made a good last ditch challenge)
Kwadwo Baah - 6 (Had a couple of good moments in the first half before being sacrificed when McNulty was sent off)
Aaron Morley — 6 (Some decent balls in again and his range of passing was good but needs to do a lot more off the ball in the role he plays)
Matt Lund - 5 (Not one of his better games today)
Ollie Rathbone - 6 (Anonymous first half but always works hard)
Jake Beesley - 8 (Arguably his best performance in a Dale shirt, superb and rewarded with a goal)
STEPHEN HUMPHRYS- 9 (How much do we rely on this man! Wow. Stunning performance again, MOTM)
Subs:
Ryan McLaughlin - 7 (Made a big difference at right back)
Stephen Dooley - 6 (Did ok but missed a glorious chance)
Alex Newby - Not on long enough