The Road to Wembley (Having Passed it Twice)

This post has been a long time coming.  I really couldn’t bring myself to finish it.  This should give a big clue to the final result, but, nevertheless, here are their events in their (lack of) glory…

The trip to Gillingham was a long one.  For the 6.30 pm kick-off, the coach departed at 12.00 and the journey was expected to take 5 hours.  Only the dedicated need apply.  Despite the epic journey, the Dale fans were in good spirits and rightly so.   The first leg had shown that the two teams were very similar and, despite home advantage for the Gills, anything could happen.  ‘Dale still have an excellent chance’ was the general consensus, although the away performance against Wycombe would be more welcome than the one against Bournemouth!  With the journey started, talkSPORT was on the radio to listen to updates on Bury’s second leg in the other game that kicked off at 12.00.  I, personally, thought that Bury would have a simple task as Shrewsbury had a poor away record and Bury held the advantage.  How wrong was I?  Bury somehow imploded; missing a penalty and a missing a host of chances (some credit must go to Daniels, the Shrew’ keeper, who was immense).  With just minutes to go, and just as the coach passed Shrewsbury, the away side equalised through Kevin McIntrye to the delight of the coach.  It looked grim as Shrewsbury were reduced to ten-men and put under a ton of pressure by the home side.  Thankfully, they managed to hold firm before clinching victory in the shootout.  As the coach pulled into the service station for a rest stop, there were scenes of celebration for the demise of Dale’s local rivals.  Maybe this was going to be our year.  Maybe the Dale were going up.

 Ok, so a defeat to another side should have no bearing on the confidence of our fans, but it did boost morale somewhat.  It was nice to know that the Shakers weren’t going to Wembley and I planned on emphasising this fact to the Bury fan I know (who used to share this blog).  I thought I’d wait until after the Dale game as I didn’t want any of my comments to come back and haunt me.  I wouldn’t know if it was a good decision for a good 6 hours.

 The Priestfield Stadium is located right in the middle of a housing estate and the roads are extraordinarily tight in the close proximity.  This meant that the coach had to park ten minutes away and we had to walk the rest of the journey which was probably for the best after the 5-hour journey.  The walk took us through many narrow alleyways and ginnels; they must have been fun in the seventies and eighties when hooliganism was rife.  A gang at each end of the opening and a couple of home fans to jump over the perimeter walls would be all that is required to beat down the home support.  It was hard to notice that we had arrived at the ground as it was weirdly placed at the end of a street.  We were met by what was, basically, a pile of scaffolding with some seats nailed on.  I knew it was temporary seating, but it looked more rickety than I imagined- I wouldn’t be jumping up and down if Dale score!

 In the queue at the turnstile, bag searches were being complete as usual.  I was carrying a rucksack with food and drink (in bottles) for the way home and, naturally, I didn’t want the bottles to be taken from me.  To avoid this, I opened another pocket that contained my PSP, my coat and a magazine that my girlfriend had bought at the service station.  This magazine featured a women with a bikini on the back cover, prompting the steward to tell me that “I can keep my dirty magazine”.  While I was embarrassed, I was reluctant to put him right; I would much rather be the perv on the coach than a regular reader of women’s magazines.  Oh the shame!

 Mercifully, it was a dry day.  No roof in the away end meant that Gillingham even felt the need to offer us complimentary waterproof coats, but I declined anyway.  I was stood there in my Rochdale shirt as I awaited kick-off, which was now imminent as the sun began to set.  A surprise in the Dale line-up was the inclusion of Joey Thompson on the right-wing ahead of Will Buckley.  Buckley had impressed me in the first-leg, but, apparently, not everyone else shared my view.  Either way, I’m sure Hill hoped he would pose a potent threat against a tiring Gillingham side.  Up front, Rochdale went with Chris Dagnall and Lee Thorpe- the ‘little-and-large’ pairing that Hill often prefers. The selection of Dagnall may raise a few eyebrows as it means demoting top-scorer Adam Le Fondre to the bench, Daggers would dismiss my concerns with sensational performance (more on that later).  Thorpe also replaced Jon Shaw, who had been reasonably impressive despite his lack of match sharpness.  I consider Lee Thorpe to be the least intelligent footballer in the League and he did nothing to disprove my claims here.

 The start of the game was unsurprising as the home team were well on top with their running from deep being as dangerous as it was in the first leg. Winger Andy Barcham’s dribbling was particularly dangerous throughout the game and he really tested a solid Dale defence in the early stages.  Gillingham were aided by Dale’s poor passing that saw possession surrendered constantly in the final third.  The runs from deep finally made the difference as Barcham found space out wide and crossed for Simeon Jackson to nip in at the near post and poke the ball home, past Fielding’s desperate dive.  In the build-up, there was a clear handball that, to my amazement, was not spotted by the officials.  The argument could be that the ball bounced up and on to his arm, but, at the end of the day, the Gillingham midfielder gained a significant advantage from the handball, therefore, it is a foul.  Needless to say, I was livid and shouted myself hoarse in protest.  No voice, a goal behind, away from home- it was going to be a tough day.

 When find your team in this position, it is difficult not to feel as though you might as well get back to the coach.  With a team like Rochdale, this feeling is emphasised in the stands.  As shown by Frank Skinner (the sage) when he sang:

‘Everyone seems to know the score,

They’ve seen it all before,

They just know,

They’re so sure’,

This is a brilliantly-apt description of the feelings that came across in the stands.  Importantly, the players refused to give in and showed great character.  Passes found strikers; Dagnall battled; Thompson dribbled.  The fans became ignited by the Dale players’ surge in performance and the reward came shortly before the break.  Chris Dagnall was found in the area and he coolly feinted, deceiving the whole of the Gills defence before slamming the ball beyond Royce in the goal.  It was a sensational finish that defied the lack of confidence that had dogged him from day one this year, however, there is no doubting that the effort he put in every week certainly warranted this reward.  Naturally, the away crowd went mental, literally rocking the stand.  I stopped jumping quickly.  My yelling also stopped abruptly, although that was more forced.

The shift of momentum was swift and powerful.  Where Dale were previously struggled to find men, passes were sticking.  Where deflections would previously find blue shirts, they now found yellows.  The pressure was cranked up, leaving the Dale fans bouyant at half-time.  When the second half continued in the same vein, it looked like Dale were going to pull it off.  Well, it did seem that way until Gillingham hit back.  A counter attack by flying winger Andy Barcham saw him seemingly going nowhere before McArdle came across and totally took him out.  Stone-wall penalty!  It was a stupid tackle and Simeon Jackson converted to give Gillingham a precious 2-1 advantage.

Finding themselves behind, Rochdale truly had the stuffing knocked out of them.  They immediately looked a beaten side and were lucky to stay within a goal of the home team as Richards deflected a Barcham freekick onto the top of the bar.  Hilly made changes and went for a 4-3-3 with the introduction of Buckley and Shaw (cleverly deployed on the wing) and, more importantly, withdrew the crap Thorpe.  Unfortunately, Dale just couldn’t break down the Gills defence until the final moments when Buckley dragged a glorious opportunity wide of the mark.  It would have been a fairytale ending to his breakthrough season, but he and Dale were to miss out on the day.

The Gillingham fans invaded the pitch, rightly so, but decided to abandon, erm, wild abandon and instead focused on taunting our fans.  Last season, when we were victorious, I remember our fans applauding the unsuccessful Darlington fans and even pulling the taunting minority away from the stand.  As a result, we traded insults with the invading fans who were now trying to break police lines in front of our stand.  Bizarrely, the bloke on the tannoy praised our away support and we turned to applaud the few remaining home fans in the stands before resuming our insults towards the pitch.  Only in football.  With all these procedures completed, we started the walk back to the coach and began the journey home.

Season over.  There was a slightly sombre mood on the coach (as you can imagine), especially as we passed road signs for Wembley (oh the irony!).  It came to the point where only two or three people were awake on the coach.  I was one of them, unable to sleep after what I had witnessed.  Instead I continued to manage Dale on Football Manager Handheld.  FA Cup-winning, UEFA Cup challenging, Championship side Rochdale.  I can but dream…

Familiar Territory

The second meeting in five days bore very little resemblance to the Gills comfortable victory at the weekend as Dale made a host of changes.  The omni-present left-back Tom Kennedy replaced loanee Tom Newey to take his rightful place in the starting line-up along with Nathan Stanton (replacing Marcus Holness), Ciaran Toner (Mark Jones), Lee Thorpe (Jon Shaw) and Adam Le Fondre (Chris Dagnall).  The under-strength Dale side struggled to make an impression against Gillingham; who only brought back Andy Barcham, veteran keeper Simon Royce and star striker Simeon Jackson.  This gave me the impression that Gillingham had shown their hand more fully than Rochdale.  The result was that I was hopeful that Dale would secure a passage to Wembley over the two legs.  On the other hand, I was quite nervous.  Every fan must feel like this in the scenario, at home in the first leg is a disadvantage and it is imperative that Dale take a lead down to Kent.  The vast majority of nerves came from the fear of finding Dale out of the tie by the second leg.  As far as I was concerned, a narrow lead would do just fine, although a draw wouldn’t be a nightmare.

If this game could have been more even, I have no suggestions as to how.  The League Two play-off semi-final first leg between Dale and Gillingham at Spotland was hard-fought to say the least.  It was quite clear that Gillingham were content to pick up a draw, cue constant time wasting and a counter-attacking strategy.  As for Dale, they found it difficult to break the door down all night as chances were few and far between.  If anyone was going to break the deadlock, it was the prodigious Will Buckley; who was eager to end his breakthrough season with a defining goal (or to put himself in the shop window).  He gave Joe Nutter, the brilliantly-named Gillingham left-back, a torrid time and the defender entered the book after half-an-hour for a poor tackle from behind (a source of inconsistency from the referee as he had let an identical incident pass on the other wing just minutes earlier).  Buckley was to tire as the game progressed and failed to capitalise on his marker’s caution, however, he did conjure up Rochdale’s best attempt- ending a mazy run with a strike that flashed just wide.  The Gills almost responded to the pressure on the brink of half-time, forcing an excellent save from a close range header by Frank Fielding.  The on-loan Blackburn Rovers keeper got down well to tip the ball around the post and Dale got away with it.

The second half was more of the same as very little separated the two sides.  The two best attempts came from long range, courtesy of Gillingham’s Stuart Lewis and Dale’s captain Gary Jones.  First, Lewis struck a fizzing ball from around 25 yards that was parried away spectacularly by Fielding to the safety of the touchline.  Not to be bettered, Jones attempted a spinning volley that was also met by an aerial parry from Royce.  I had seen Jones practicing this type of effort in the warm-up (where he shanked it, naturally), so it was good to see it come off in the game, although, unfortunately, it didn’t produce the desired result.  With chances becoming increasingly few and far between, Dagnall had Dale’s final opportunity.  Striking from a tight angle, he forced a good save from Royce low down to his left.  The referee, of course, missed the save and gave a goal kick. However, this was nothing compared to the blinding error that he would make in the dying stages.

A Gillingham corner saw the usual pushing-and-shoving, attracting the attention of the official.  While he was focusing on Rory McArdle’s confrontation with substitute Mark McCammon (nothing out of the ordinary), he walked right past Albert Jarrett just after he had head-butted his marker, Nathan Stanton.  The crowd, including me, were incensed by the referee’s failure to see the incident, especially after last year’s controversy with David Perkins.  The influential midfielder missed Dale’s final at Wembley last season for a ‘phantom tackle’ as he was sent for intent.  To sum it up, it was a decidedly dodgy decision.  Also, the fact that Perkins’ ‘misdemeanour’ was televised on Sky probably contributed to his dismissal meant that surely Jarrett should be sited after the game?  He won’t be, hence Rochdale will probably screwed yet again.

The game petered out to a 0-0 draw, which is a decent result, although not ideal.  The problem may be that Dale’s advantage has gone as it will be difficult to defeat Gillingham on their own patch.  A home win is possibly required to secure a place at Wembley on many occasions.  I hope it doesn’t cost Rochdale.  As for Bury, they have no such worries.  A somewhat ‘flukey’ own goal gave them a slender away advantage against Shrewsbury Town.  The own goal in question was completed by Neil Ashton, whose attempted pass-back looped over Luke Daniels in the Shrews’ goal.  The goal must have secured Bury’s place at Wembley.  Damn!

 So Dale, for the second year running, had failed to secure a positive result in the first leg of the ploay-offs, although this time they didn’t have the luxury of home advantage in the defining match.  A long trip to Kent awaits.  Hopefully, a successful one.