Dale endured a frustrating afternoon at St James Park as Paul Tisdale's side picked up maximum points with an extremely complimentary scoreline to go with it. Match report online now!

Manager Keith Hill made a few changes to his side on Saturday with Rory McArdle returning to the team in place of Nathan Stanton.

Scott Wiseman, who has recently returned from injury, regained his place on the right hand side of defence with Simon Ramsden moving to centre back. The only other change was Jon Shaw starting in place of Lee McEvilly.  

Dale started the game brightly with all the chances falling in our favour, Shaw’s frustrating dry spell in front of goal continued with the striker missing a couple of chances in the first ten minutes a lone.

Adam Le Fondre was also guilty of missing a sitter as Dale layed siege to the Exeter goal with the Grecians having very little effect on the match. 

The pressure continued as Le Fondre forced a save from Paul Jones having been layed off by Shaw and Keltie also came close as his effort from outside the area flew just over the Exeter ‘keeper’s net. 

But, as Exeter finally managed to break out of their half, a cross was whipped in with the goal being wickedly deflected towards the goal, Sam Russell reacted tremendously to claw the ball away from his net.

Unfortunately for Russell and Dale, Steve Basham reacted first to Russell’s save and poked the ball home to make it 1-0 to Exeter. 

Dale continued to play how they had done before the fortuitous goal with Shaw winning plenty of headers and the game was quite an enjoyable and entertaining affair, until Scott Wiseman was adjudged to have illegally prevented Exeter’s Ryan Harley from a goal scoring opportunity. 

I’ve read from a few sources about this Scott Wiseman shirt pulling, Paul Tisdale has said it and some supporters have mentioned it on the board.

But in my view, Wiseman was doing his job and challenging Harley which he is well within his right to do. His he supposed to let his man run past him and score? 

Either way, Harley wasn’t willing to run past Wiseman and opted to spit his dummy out and complain to the referee, and to everyone’s horror, the referee agreed that Harley had been impeded and sent Wiseman off. 

Steve Basham stepped up to take the penalty for Exeter and hammered it straight down the middle of Russell’s net to put Exeter 2-0 up against ten men Dale. 

Dale soldiered on with the rest of the half with Le Fondre having Dale’s chance as he came off the better of a one-on-one with Paul Jones but failed to score, which epitomised Dale’s luck in front of goal throughout the game. 

At half time Keith Hill sacrificed his width with Adam Rundle being replaced by Marcus Holness and Will Buckley being replaced by Chris Dagnall. 

Dale impressed me for most of the second half as they kept their heads, and made Danny Seaborne and Rob Edwards work incredibly hard to keep them at bay.

Lee McEvilly replaced Le Fondre with twenty minutes remaining as Dale tried to get back into the game. 

McEvilly had a decent effort shortly after coming on from Dale’s left as he came close from range. 

And in bizarre circumstances, Exeter were allowed to break away and end the game as a contest after Seaborne and Dagnall got involved in a bit of handbags on the edge of the Exeter area. 

It was clear to Dale fans and the players that Seaborne had pushed Dagnall in the face, with both players giving it out.

Even the referee saw it as he ran over, but for some reason, decided to let Exeter break away down the left. 

And with the referee, Seaborne, Dagnall and the fast approaching McEvilly still outside the Exeter area, Exeter’s Chris McAllister was leaving Russell with no chance as he made it 3-0 to Exeter. 

The farce then continued as the referee decided that fighting was part of football as the tables turned with Seaborne being man-marked by McEvilly for the remainder of the match. 

Exeter’s fourth and McAllister’s second came shortly after as the midfielder took advantage of a McArdle error to run at goal and score to rub salt into Dale’s wounds as the battle between Dale’s attackers and Exeter’s defenders continued. 4-0 Exeter.

Exeter's 'keeper also finally reacted to the abuse from supporters in the away end when the Grecian's got the fourth. Which although it isn't professional to react like that, it was funny to see the culprits make out that the 'keeper was in the wrong and that they didn't warrent his reaction!

The game continued and to everyone’s surprise, the referee decided to even things up slightly, by deciding it was one foul too many when Rob Edwards jumped on Jon Shaw as the striker tried meet a Simon Ramsden cross. 

Shaw clearly wanted to take the penalty he had just won, but Keltie was having none of it and luckily for Keltie, Jones was unable to save it as Dale got their solitary consolation of the day. 

In my opinion, Dale’s players should know the standard of refereeing in general is poor now at every level and they shouldn’t let it affect their game.

But some did which allowed Exeter to take advantage and finish the game off in the second half.  

I’m sure we’ll learn from it though and there will be no better time to bounce back then on Boxing Day against Paul Simpson’s Shrewsbury, who also lost this weekend. 

Rochdale ratings: Russell 7, Wiseman 6, Ramsden 6, McArdle 6, Kennedy 6, Rundle 6 (Holness 6), Keltie 6, Toner 6, Buckley 6 (Dagnall 6), Shaw 7, Le Fondre 6 (McEvilly 6).

Photo: Action Images

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