Dale travelled to Lincoln hoping to keep up their fantastic away record. Alas, it wasn't to be. Report now online.

Lincoln City 2 - 1 Rochdale AFC

Rochdale were made to pay for their lack of clinical finishing against Lincoln as thy went down 2-1 at Sincil bank.

It was a belting day for weather on Saturday as the Rochdale faithful were back on the road, with Saturday’s destination being Lincolnshire. There was no room recent signings Lee Thorpe and Chris Basham as Rory McArdle and Rene Howe returned to the starting eleven.

Dale’s starting line up: Russell, Ramsden, Stanton, McArdle, Kennedy, Perkins, Jones, Doolan, Rundle, Howe and le Fondre (4-4-2).

Before I continue with the report its only right that I congratulate Gary Jones on his 300^th appearance for Rochdale. He’s been an quality and deserves every bit of praise he gets.

Dale made a bright start to the game, grinding out some excellent moves, but for some reason, unbeknown to us, Dale seemed to forget how to shoot when they got into the home side’s area. But despite Howe, Jones and Rundle all coming close it was Lincoln who came the closest with former Dale loanee Louis Dodds seeing his set-piece effort strike the post on the 9^th minute.

Jones tested the Lincoln ’keeper soon after, having been put through on goal by a lovely pass from le Fondre, unfortunately Lincoln’s Marriott was on hand to keep the shot out. Howe also found himself one on one with the ‘keeper but once again Marriott was on hand to keep Dale’s attack at bay.

It was soon after that Dale lost U21 international Rory McArdle to injury, the wall was struck by an elbow according to a couple of posts on the message board, and was forced to leave the pitch due to concussion. Word has it that McArdle can’t remember what happened which says it all to me. Holness was the defender to replace the wall.

And as the half was coming to a close, disaster struck for Dale. Lee Frecklington, goalscorer when we last played against Lincoln, had a gamble with a powerful shot from 25 yards out. Goalkeeper Russell was unable to gather the ball, with the ever annoying Jamie Forrester being first to the rebound, making no mistake, putting Lincoln 1-0 up.

Dale never let their heads go down and carried on the half as they started, passing the wall the right way as Hill preaches so often. At half time it was 1-0 and Dale were unlucky to be on the wrong side of the scoreline to say the least. Either way it was back to being made to suffer the atrocious choice of music by the Lincoln tannoy man.

A mention has to go to the opposite fans who provided some great entertainment with songs such as ‘show us your ginger’ being aimed at their chavs. But unfortunately the fun and games was halted as the wannabe Men In Black arrived at the back of the stand to evict four Dale fans for reasons again unknown to at least me.

Anyway back to the football, Dale started as the first half ended, looking bright, knocking the ball around and causing Lincoln allsorts of problems. There was one move in particular, where I can’t remember who finished it off with the shot, but Dale were knocking it around with Lincoln being unable to get anywhere near the ball.

And ironically Dale got the equaliser whilst breaking out from some Lincoln pressure. Perkins put a ball through on the left which set Howe off on goal, and the on loan striker made no mistake as he lifted the ball over Lincoln’s ‘keeper to start some mental celebrations from the Dale fans.

After that came a period of frustration for Dale fans, as they saw Lincoln players conning the officials time and time again with their play acting antics. There was also the awful performance by the officials and some suicidal defending by Dale as Lincoln were unable to take advantage of the space they was allowed in the Dale area.

Before Lincoln scored the winner, there was a bit of handbags which lead to Lee Beevers taking substitute Kallum Higginbotham away from the situation. When I say taking Higginbotham away, the Lincoln player was carrying the winger all the way to the High Street until Higginbotham struggled loose and pushed the defender away. The decision in my opinion was spot on to give him only a yellow card for the push, as pictures are supposed to show quite clearly that there was no punch thrown by the winger.

After that Lincoln finally took advantage of Dale’s static defending as Daniel Hone met a long throw and his effort was too good for Russell, who like his defence, could only stand and watch. And despite some spells of possession for Dale they couldn’t force any effort that could have earned us a point.

Match Ratings:

Russell 5

Ramsden 6

Stanton 6

McArdle 7

Kennedy 6

Perkins 7

Jones 9 - Superb performance in his 300^th game for Dale. The machine of the match for Dale by miles!

Doolan 6

Rundle 6

Howe 8

Alfie 7

Substitutes:

Holness 7

Higginbotham 6

Thorpe 6

Photo: Action Images

Southampton Polls