A sorry story from the North East as Dale returned empty handed after a defeat at the hands of an average Darlington side. It was a sorry tale with Dale fans housed in a stand not worthy of league football, watching football on a pitch not worthy of schoolboy football, and we had the sad return of Dale fans arguing amongst themselves at the end which led to a bit of violence at one point.

It was not a good start as Dale fans found themselves in the old main stand at Darlington as opposed to behind the goal as we are used to. We were sat in an old wooden stand which was close to capacity, and charged an extortionate £11 for the privilege. To make things worse, wherever you sat you had an obscured view of the pitch, with very few seats giving you a clear sight of both goal mouths. Stands like this should have been closed down a long time. The pitch matched the stand. Despite there being little rain throughout the day, the pitch was a quagmire, with the touchlines being under water.

As for the game, it started well enough. Dale were on top for much of the first half and should have been several goals up. Dale played tight from the back and attacked on the break with Robbie Painter supplying some tireless runs, against his old team. He was hampered mainly by the lack of support from his striking partner Andy Morris. Morris has struggled from injury in the last eighteen months and has played little first team action in that time. Today, he couldn't run or head the ball. He struggled with some physical marking by the Darlo defenders which the ref didn't notice. Let's hope things will get better.

Dale went close with a few efforts from Carden, Painter and Farrell, but none of them really tested the keeper. However disaster struck two minutes into injury time in the first half when Darlo forward Darren Roberts found the ball land at his feet and he had all the time in the world to fire past Neil Edwards to give Darlington an undeserved lead. This was a shame as the Dale defence had done really well in the first half. Farrell, Hill and Johnson made great tackles and never really looked liked being beaten.

The second half saw Dale attempt to get back into the match as they searched an equaliser, but again there were no outstanding chances. Barrow decided to go for it as he brought on Holt for Mark Williams, as he went 4-3-3 playing Holt, Morris and Painter all up front. However the gamble didn't play off as just a few minutes later Darlo went two up when Mario Dorner managed to score again with lots of time in his hands. There was a suspicion of offside, but due to the restricted view that you have at Darlington, who knows?

Dale tried in vain to get back into it, but nothing much happened. Mark Stuart livened things up a bit when he came on as a substitute, as he created a couple of chances where we went close. The last minute saw the best goal of the three when a clever finish from a cross from the right saw a clever finish by Naylor put the Quakers three nil up. This brought the expected mass exodus from the Dale area. This brought unhappy scenes as a couple of departing fans gave their view to manager Graham Barrow who was sat in a dugout just in front of the Dale supporters. Barrow turned round and answered his critics, which led to a few other Dale fans had a go at those now leaving. This was repeated at the final whistle, when Barrow again addressed his critics. At one point, it looked like fists were being thrown, which obviously is bang out of order, no question and it is impossible to defend.

The one bright point was again the performance of Paul Carden who ran his heart out again. It is hoped that the club is making steps to secure that he is still at the club, whoever is running things.

Dale: Edwards, Sparrow, Barlow(Williams(Holt)), Hill, Farrell, Johnson, Carden, Painter, Morris, Bryson (Stuart), Peake.

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls