In a tale of two halves lacklustre Dale had what looked like victory snatched from their grasp as in the final minute they had a seemingly good Adam LeFondre goal disallowed for offside and then saw veteran Kevin Ellison stride through their defence to give his side their first 3 point haul of the season.
Dale boss Keith Hill whilst bemoaning his teams poor defending was adamant that "we have seen the video and our goal should have definitely stood. It was definitely not offside."
"We lost it in the 2nd half. We can't concede goals and win games. We did what we expect to do in the first half-we kept a clean sheet and went 1 up which was a total contrast to the 2nd half. The goals that we are conceding at the moment are poor at any standard. We do a lot of work in training and I am mystified as to why we are not keeping clean sheets"
Much the better side in the opening period Dale failed to make their pressure tell and had to settle for just the one goal. That came on 21 minutes when
Perhaps buoyed by still being on terms at the break the visitors improved after the break and on the hour pulled level. Ellison made an excellent run to the by line and picked out the onrushing Tony Grant who joyfully slammed home from 12 yards.
With time running out Le Fondre appeared to won the game when he turned home a Chris Dagnall cross but his joy was short lived courtesy of the assistant referee.
Just a minute later
Hilly is certainly not happy with the opening week of league action after the optimistic summer months
"Football is all about winning and we now have 2 in the losses column and that is unacceptable. We want to do things this season and we have lost 2 of a possible 10 than you can afford to lose and still get in the Play offs so it is a poor start"
