04/09 Rochdale Part 2

Grimsby Town 0 Rochdale 1
04 Sep 2004, Coca Cola League 2

Perhaps we’re just watching and waiting for the moment to strike. Lulling them forward to create space. It’s tactical. Yeah, Russ’s big bonce had come up with a meisterplan. Rochdale still have the ball, they might even cross it soon. Aahhh, that’s better, their straggly-haired midfielder dripped a shot several feet wide of Williams’ right hand post from about 25 yards out. No danger.

Five minutes gone - a shot! Oo la-la, from left to right, the ball fizzed, Rochdale stripped to the bone, Sestanovich cutting in, in and around two defenders before smooching a left-footed shot straight into the goalkeeper’s midriff. A few minutes later another nearly moment. Some head tennis on the right ended with Reddy nodding the ball back into space about a dozen yards out on the centre left. Fleming strode forward, opened his body and very precisely rolled a soft shot towards the bottom left hand corner. Edwards flopped on to the ball. A couple of minutes after that Pinault floated a free kick from the right, about 25 yards out to the far post. Whittle steamed in, barged a defender away and, from beyond the far post, headed firmly across the face of goal. Bouncing along without a care in the world, the ball tantalised the faithful, but rolled away. Perhaps Gallimore cleared, which would be nice for him. Ah, and again, another foul and another free kick from Pinault. Gordon, unmarked and in almost exactly the same spot of green, green grass as wattling Whittle had been, headed down into the ground. The ball slowly looped over Edwards and over the bar.

Sounds like Town had chances? Sort of. It was deadly dull, but ‘Dale had been far from deadly themselves. They had that work ethic vibe, which Town conspicuously didn’t. The magnificence of our socks would surely be enough to see off these little specks, these footballing footnotes? Rochdale were capable of passing to each other more often than not, though the frequency of their passing to Tony Ford in their dug-out was pleasing to the eye. They must have had one eye on our history too.

Had the Town players enjoyed the pre-match meal in McMenemy’s as much as the oldsters? Was this a post-prandial stroll in the Park?

Rochdale squeezed the juice out of Town, simply by filling the middle with men, by running up to Town players and tackling. Most Town players couldn’t be bothered to manoeuvre themselves into space. The result? A dreadful, dull droopy nonsense of direness. A steaming, putrid pot of rotting parsnips. Town resorted to their lazy ways of lofting high balls up to Parkinson. When that failed they decided to prove that Gallimore was taller than McDermott. Amazingly he is. Who’d have thought that?

Take a little break, close your eyes and drift away.

Don’t worry, you haven’t missed a thing. Pinault decided to play some trick shots to liven things up a bit. McDermott rolled a corner back to Town’s leading Frenchman. Rochdale were surprised by this cunningly ploy - to do something we did last week from which we scored. Who’d have thought it? The mind boggles. No, Pinault’s foot boggled. He swiped and the ball ballooned up, circled the earth twice and dropped at Sestanovich’s foot near the edge of the penalty area. What audacity, what a superb pass. We chuckled as we knew that Spotlanders thought he was shooting. We know better, of course. I think McDermott crossed. He might not have done. I can confirm that it didn’t rain wheelbarrows, aliens didn’t land in the back of the Main Stand, and Gallimore didn’t climb onto the back of a giant albatross which flew through a crack in the cloud to a place where happiness reigned all year round. Then again, he might have gone straight to the Grosvenor after the game, which is almost the same, isn’t it? They do play music ever so loud.

"Sounds like your car needs some colonic irrigation."
"We’re making Galli look composed."
"I saw Dave Worthington selling ice creams down the Prom. He looked happy. "
"How did the same eleven beat Wigan?"
"One of them doesn’t like football and the other collects tropical fish."