Well if it wasn't frost putting this game at risk, then it was the 24 hours of rainfall in the run up. But not to be outdone, we came from behind to extend our unbeaten run to ten games.

There's a theory which has gathered much weight over the years that when we have one of those games which has been surrounded with much doubt as to whether it would go ahead or not, we will only end up regretting the decision to give the game the go ahead as they often coincide with poor Dale performances.

And for long periods of Saturday afternoon, it seemed that was once again the case as Dale failed to get going against a spirited Bournemouth side which dominated the central midfield throughout the first half. But it doesn't half show the character of this Dale side that in a game in which we never really clicked like we can, that we still came incredibly close to snatching all three points.

First half was just....... urgh. Neither side probably had an effort on target from open play. It wasn't a drab encounter, and the midfield play had moments of entertainment, but a goal seemed as likely as a Sunny afternoon. We had the third debut of Lee McEvilly, and whilst he certainly had plenty of the ball, and won his fair share of headers, it wouldn't be unfair to say that there's more to come from the Evil one.

A hugely disappointing away following seemed happy enough with the proceedings, which is probably the biggest compliment going, and despite just over a hundred coming up from Dorset, they were vocal enough and were allowed to stand. What a difference a camera from ITV with the away fans makes to club policy.

In terms of Dale attacks, we struggled greatly, and it took the ghosts of McCourt from Will Buckley to give us anything to cheer for. Buckley continued that fantastic ability of his where no matter what happens, he will always have the ball still at his feet. He surged down the right wing, past defenders left in his wake, and had the entire ground with hearts in mouths. And not for the last time this afternoon, his final touch cost him as he fired wide. Nevertheless, an excellent move from the highly rated youngster.

The first save of the game came in the last five minutes of the half. The visitors had a free kick outside the box. The ball was laid off before before fired across the greasy Spotland pitch and it took an excellent save from Russell to keep it out, and a further good reaction to ensure that Russell gobbled it up on the second time of asking.

And with time ticking away, a Holness mistake allowed the advantage to one AFC attacker. Holness seemingly recovered well by getting back goal side, but as their attacker looked to change direction, the referee surprised everyone by pointing to the spot. There were widespread protests both on and off the field at this decision, but strangely Holness was absent from these protestations which could tell its own story. Either way, we escaped a much contentious issue earlier in the half following a push in the back from Stanton.

Former Man City striker Lee Bradbury, him of the famous missing R's after his £3 million purchase from Pompey, stepped and despite Russell guessing the right way, he was still quite some distance from saving the very well taken penalty and the visitors had the lead.

There was much talk that we hadn't deserved anything else other than that scoreline read, which was a little unfair as it suggested Bournemouth deserved to be winning, simply for not being behind. They'd done little themselves other than the aforementioned set pieces.

Now you almost get the feeling that giving the opposition side at Spotland a one goal lead sets things up nicely for the second half. Long gone are the days where an early goal conceded was enough to dictate the final score, and we never ever seem out of a game. We could be 5-0 down at half time, and they'd still be coming up with a battle plan at half time about how we could sneak it 6-5.

And so it proved to be. Well half right anyway, as a much improved performance in the second half was enough to see us grab a share of the spoils which could have been all three with a bit of fortune.

The biggest difference in the second half was Clark Keltie.  Keltie is showing signs of being one of those players who will divide opinion amongst the fan base. He's clearly a very good player, with an eye for things, but there's been suggestions that his way of playing doesn't fit into our style of play. But in the second half of this game, he played with a grit and determination which brought him an extra yard of pace, as he snapped about the pitch as the dominant figure in a game in which he'd barely featured in the first 45.

We didn't have to wait overly long for the change in play. We had that now traditional second half improvement, and whilst it wasn't perfect, it certainly had enough to keep the Cherries rattled.

Shaw came on Evil, and it wasn't long till Dagnall came on for Rundle as Dale tried to go for the most attacking formation they could think of. Bournemouth defended deeply, but they could do nothing about the equalising goal where Adam Le Fondre proved yet again that he is the main man at Spotland right now.

Arguably, Alfie still isn't getting the recognition that he deserves after a run of form of six goals in his last five matches. There is so much more to his game than his finishing, with his energy, vision and movement behind almost every Dale attack. And it was his interlinking play with Keltie which grabbed the Dale goal. He created the space for himself, before unleashing a thunderbolt of a shot. Despite standing a matter of yards from him when he shot, it was too quick for my eyes to keep up with and it was in the back of the net as soon as it left his foot.

So 20 minutes to go, could we go on and complete the script by securing all three points? In a word, no. But we did come very close. We had more excellent play from Buckley until the final touch, and a deflected shot from Alfie looked like escaping the reaches of the Bournemouth keeper at first but it was not to be.

Summer signing Jon Shaw took a bit of stick, following a couple of missed headers and a misplaced pass or two, but in my humble opinion, he offered more in this game than he had in previous outings this season, and whilst this wasn't a game where things came off for him, it brought suggestions of the player named as the best outside of the Football League in the Summer.

The signalled four minutes of additional time was spent with the visitors wasting time by keeping the ball down in the corner area. Is this a Premiership influence where teams have become afraid to try and win matches? Maybe the Bournemouth points deduction has left them precious for any point they can get, even to the extent of not gambling for all three.

So we had to make do with just a point, but the unbeaten run extended to ten league games, and with a game in hand, we sit very nicely in the top seven as the table begins to settle down to suggest that there are ten sides fighting over the seven potential promotion places.

Photo: Action Images

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