Despite equalising through a magnificent Keith Hill header at the start of the second half, Dale failed to capitalise on this, and found themselves heading for yet another defeat

Despite equalising through a magnificent Keith Hill header at the start of the second half, Dale failed to capitalise on this, and found themselves heading for yet another defeat. With more points dropped, all the signs are that we are heading for another season of depression.

Yet another game where we dominated the match, and ended up with nothing to show for it. Dale restricted the opposition to only a couple of chances throughout, though they scored from both of them. However whereas at Brentford we did it against a decent team, Hull are a second rate team and should have been killed off within the first twenty minutes or so.

Dale started the game brightly enough knocking the ball about a bit, but not causing too many dangerous situations. Hull were rarely getting forward and hence had few attacks. They got a corner after a dodgy throwin decision. The ball was swept in but was met by Dean Stokes who made a complete hash of things. With no one around him, he tried kicking it, he then hand balled it, before it bounced to the unmarked Peacock at the back post who had the easy task of finishing it off. He struggled doing that as the ball went in off the crossbar.

This should have been the signal for Dale to wake up and come to their senses. To be fair, things improved slightly as Dale began to look a bit more threatening but again all the possession counted for nothing, save for a goal line clearance.

The second half began with Dale looking very lively after manager Graham Barrrow's teamtalk at half time, and it was no surprise when Dale equalised five minutes into the half. A cross from a corner was met by Keith Hill about fiteen yards out whose header flew into the top corner.

The following period saw Dale well on top and victory seemed to be a matter of time. Dale looked comfortable in midfield and were creating more chances. Hull defended desperately but successfully restricting Dale to half chances.

Hull got the winner as Dale were knocking the ball about in midfield. Mark Bailey lost the ball in midfeld and Hull broke down the left hand side leaving Brown with an easy finish.

Dale tried to get back into the game late on but again had no real clear cut chances. The final whistle came to a much emptied away terrace as many Dale fans had decided they had seen enough well before the referee had.

The game saw late subs with Sparrow coming on for Dave Bayliss, and David Gray coming on to replace Ian Bryson with about five minutes to go. The Scotsman obviously disagreed with Graham Barrow's decision to withdraw him and exchanged words with him on his withdrawal before disappearing down the tunnel before the match's conclusion.

This was perhaps Dale's most disappointing performance of the season so far when you take into consideration the lack of quality in the opposition. Hull, like Shrewsbury on Saturday, are a very poor side. Sides like that must be punished if we are to achieve any success this season. Whether after the performance at Brentford the players feel that if they can out play the top teams the struggling side will be pushovers, I don't know. No one is asking for 5-0 drubbings of teams week in, week out, but at present things are not good enough. The most worrying aspect is the lack of goals from the team. 5 goals in 9 competitive matches is quite worrying. Sure defensively, things are quite sound, but we have the keeper to thank for that. We are just not scoring the goals. Painter is being played as a sole striker in a 4-5-1 formation. Yes its great having two exciting wingers, but Robbie is in there on his own battling against two or three centre halfs who tower against him. He is not going to win headers against players who are six or seven inches taller than him. he needs some one to play alongside. Lancashire would be the ideal foil should he ever get fully fit. This would have to mean dropping someone from the midfield to do this. The other options are if we are to play this formation, is to play a taller striker. But who? Mark Leonard has been tried, but has not scored often enough. Young David Gray has been given five minutes here and there, but has not showed a great deal. To be fair he caused problems down at Plymouth as he is an awkward player to play against. He will not become a first team player with limited appearances. He has played about fifteen minutes in total this season. His height must be considered at some point.

The only other option is to buy someone. Mark Sale has been talked about at length, but has recently signed a new contract at Colchester. Andy Saville is available after talks broke down between his club Cardiff and Scarboro. Saville unfortunately is the wrong side of thirty and would not be a long term purchase for the club. Unfortunately the strikers around who are tall in this division are usually donkeys and would be at a much higher division if they had much footballing ability. Take the recently retired Ian Ormondroyd. If they had any sort of skills they would be big money players. Another option could be to loan players. Maybe Man Utd could loan out some wonder kid in the same way that they loaned Skirt Wearer David beckham to Preston when they were in our division.

Things must be seriously examined whilst the season is still alive. We have the creative players but 5 goals in 9 games will not bring success. Sorry if I'm being too negative about last night's defeat just a week after the post-Brentford euphoria but defeats against the poor teams hit hard.

Dale : Edwards, Bayliss (Sparrow), Stokes, Hill, Monington, Farrell, Diaz, Painter, Bailey, Bryson (Gray), Stuart. Sub not used Jones
 

Photo: Action Images

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