League leaders Cardiff City were today's visitors and the game ended in Stalemate. Dale took a first half lead through a Jason Peake goal following a goal mouth scramble. 

League leaders Cardiff City were today's visitors and the game ended in Stalemate. Dale took a first half lead through a Jason Peake goal following a goal mouth scramble. Many Cardiff fans were stuck on the motorway in heavy traffic and missed them grab a second half equaliser.

A draw was probably a fair result as Cardiff grabbed an equaliser late in the second half to take a share of the spoils. However, it should never really have come to that as Dale had had enough chances to win the game outright
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The game began with there only being about 100 if that Cardiff fans present. There was supposedly a huge hold up on the M6, which led to many Bluebird fans deciding it was not worth the rest of the journey. I knew of one Dale fan who made a similar journey and he arrived during the second half. Tales were of the Cardiff fans playing football on the side of the motorway.

Anyway, the welsh team started very brightly and started knocking the ball around quite well. They were certainly on top for the bulk of the first half, though they never really threatened much. Edwards had a couple of saves to make, but nothing to write home about. The game was quite scrappy and neither side had any clear chances. As the half progressed, Dale got more and more into the game and managed to stamp their authority on it, and it was no surprise when Dale managed to make the breakthrough just before half time, when following a scramble in the Cardiff area, Jason Peake was able to fire the ball home to put the Dale in front.

The second half saw Dale come out and look fairly comfortable with their lead, and probably looked the more likely to score. They sat back and soaked up the Cardiff pressure, and attacked on the break with Michael Holt and Robbie Painter, who replaced Holt, looking particularly dangerous. Unfortunately, their attacks usually found themselves pushed wide, with no one to pass to in the box. Pace is not Morris's strongpoint. Perhaps, it would have been wiser to introduce Painter for Morris, but Morris's height is obviously an advantage when defending a lead, especially from set pieces.

With about ten to fifteen minutes to go, Cardiff managed to grab an equaliser following a spell of pressure. There was a strong hint of pushing from the Cardiff forwards, but the ball came out to the left back who drilled the ball past Neil Edwards.

Barrow brought on Graham Lancashire and Gary Jones in an attempt to win the match, but to no avail. Cardiff nearly snatched it late on when Edwards fumbled a low shot, but managed to scramble on top of the rebound.
as mentioned above, a draw was probably a fair result at the end of the day (Brian). Cardiff were top of the league, and looked a decent strong physical side, with plenty of pace. A point off the league leaders, albeit at home is not too bad.

Dale: Edwards, Sparrow (Jones), Barlow, Bayliss, Monington, Farrell, Carden, Lydiate, Morriss, Peake (Lancashire), Holt (Painter).
 

Photo: Action Images

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