Just Back  (merged)

1250 Town fans, absolutely superb.
Safe journey home to you all  

Incredible turn out ( standard)

Given the weather, I think our players were expecting a slow, cautious, energy-saving match.

What they got was Stockdale pushing Odoh and Seriki so far forward into positions neither Clifton or Wearne were unwilling or unable to cover. This created overloads against Efete and, in particular, Glennon.

Rodney blocked his own players’ shot, from a cut back to the penalty spot.

Then Waterfall (?) cleared one off the line.

Rochdale then missed countless other chances. Really should have been 5 or 6 nil after 30 mins.

Efete and Waterfall made brilliant last ditch tackles. Holohan should have conceded a penalty for a stupid pull back in the penalty area.

We just about steadied the ship in the final 10 mins of the first half. Morris swirled a 25 yarder on to the middle of the bar.

I don’t know what was said at half-time or whether Rochdale had burnt themselves out but it was pretty even from 45-60 mins. Holohan started to get a grip on the game. Wearne, Clifton and Glennon all showed great character to improve from poor first half performances.

Wearne caught Odoh with a stray hand. Odoh squared up to Wearne a minute later and shoved Wearne in the throat. It was at that point my cover was blown as a Town fan in the Rochdale end.

Odoh, a danger up until then, spent the next 20 mins hoping for a 50:50 against Wearne, making daft decisions and doing needless tricks and stepovers.

The last 20 mins or so, Town were on top. Even more so when Amos came on.

Clifton, Efete and Waterfall all missed decent headed chances. Morris struck a free-kick just wide. Taylor had several nearly moments in the penalty box including one moment where he was desperately hoping someone would clip his heels but ended up just falling over. Clifton and Kiernan also had a few gravity issues.

Pepple chased down a lost cause, tried to walk the ball in and possibly should have had a pen (couldn’t tell from where I was).

Waterfall, who had been his usual menacing presence at the far post all half, pounced and the rest is history.

Waterfall was my MOM even before the late winner.

Well the Rochdale fans were suitably impressed with our performance!

“ What a horrible team the cod heads were ..... dropping like flies, niggly and stooping to whatever tactics necessary to disrupt us. The worst part was Ibbi being unplayable so they kicked him every time they could get near him.”

I wouldn’t be too concerned about the first quarter. Yes Rochdale could have been out of sight - but that’s why they are bottom of League 2 tonight. For me it was mainly a tactical thing - as said above Wearne and Clifton were to far forward, getting roasted and exposing the full backs. Hurst sorted it at the water break. Nothing much to add to what’s been said above, save that I thought Green was really good again - he’s an absolute grafter and will be a BLundell Park favourite…

Quoted from Mariner56

Well the Rochdale fans were suitably impressed with our performance!

“ What a horrible team the cod heads were ..... dropping like flies, niggly and stooping to whatever tactics necessary to disrupt us. The worst part was Ibbi being unplayable so they kicked him every time they could get near him.”

Exactly the sort of comments we would be making had we lost to a late winner at home.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

Not an original point to make in this thread but Andy Smith was absolutely superb.

My MoM thought he was immense today

Quoted from ginnywings

Exactly the sort of comments we would be making had we lost to a late winner at home.

Also complete nonsense because all of their players went down anytime there was a slight gust of wind, abetted by yet another awful set of officials who couldn't wait to give fouls against town players for nothing more than incidental contact on many occasions.

Thought the fitness levels our players showed today were absolutely superb. The effort levels towards the end of the second half, considering it'd been 30c in blazing sun for the whole afternoon were unbelievable. Definitely got lucky with some of Rochdale's wayward finishing in the first 30 minutes, but after that Hurst's tactical tweaks and a few players upping their game meant we were by far the better side for the rest of the match and finished imo deserved winners. We're being spoiled with the number of late important winners lately, long may it continue.

Winning in the last minute is just as good as winning 5-0 imo and I really enjoyed that!

Definitely a game of two halves - Rochdale not very clinical in the final third and we weren’t getting much into ours. It highlighted to me the need for that other striker/attacker to come in and replace McAtee. Second half much improved and Glennon moving forward was a turning point (his family were sat in front of me and seemed happy with that move). Smith brilliant as others said.

There’s not been much point going to the opening 75 mins of our games for maybe 6 months now - we could all survive this cost of living crisis betting on us to score in that period.

Definitely a game of 2 halves!

We were so far off the pace first half, it was ridiculous!  With some composure in front of goal, we could have been 3-0 down easily.  Wearne was letting their 11 get past him far too easily.  That said, we could have gone in ahead after a rocket hit the bar.

2nd half we were much better, and took control of the midfield and snuffed out most of their attacks quite easily.  A cameo from Pepple brought the goal as he drove into the box - they looked excrement scared of him.  The resulting corner hit home by Waterfall who is developing an uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time.

On balance, I think we can count ourselves a little fortunate to come away with the 3 points, however we didn't deserve to lose.

Happy with the 2nd half improvement, I think there's good times to come from this team.