Rochdale were left frustrated in their efforts to move into the top 10 as rock bottom Wrexham, to use a phrase coined by Jose Mourinhno, "parked their bus" in front of the goals and strangled the life out of the game.
Chances were few and far between and the one moment of individual brilliance saw Adam Le Fondre denied an early 21st birthday present when his superb 22 yard lob cannoned back off the inside of the upright midway through the 2nd half.
The game started as it would continue with Dale pinning their visitors back, forcing 5 corners in the first ten minutes but seeing a series of balls into the penalty area repelled by Man of the Match Steve Evans and his fellow defenders.
The only glimpses as goal in the first half saw Kallum Higginbotham fire over from a tight angle on 7 minutes and Le Fondre show good feet but fire narrowly wide on 27 minutes.
The start of the second period saw Wrexham poke their heads out of their shells as Dale started sluggishly and within 15 minutes of the restart manager Keith Hill made changes, the strangeley quiet Adam Rundle replaced by Glenn Murray and Dave Perkins who had been ill at the break replaced by John Doolan.
Le Fondres individual effort on 65 minutes almost livened up the afternoon but only in fact summed it up and within 3 minutes Wrexham had their only worthwhile shot as Sam Russelll almost made a hash of beating out a swerving effort from Matty Done.
Rory Prendergast replaced Lee McEvilly on 70 minutes and his corner picked out Higginbotham who saw his powerful header clawed away by Michael Williams in the Wrexham goal and from the subsequent corner Murray got up the highest but saw his header comfortable saved.
In the dying minutes Simon Ramsden fired in a cross from the right but Le Fondre with a flying header missed the target from the near post and that was that as far as chances went.
Manager Keith Hill was certainly less than impressed by the tactics used by his former club saying afterwards ( hear it on Dale World)
" Wrexham didn't go anywhere and just camped on the edge of the box with a solid back 5. It is very frustrating. I cant control what the oppostion do but if I was a football supporter I wouldn't watch that type of game. We try to play in the right manner and I am not going to be a member of the get it in the box brigade"
" Wrexhams tactics were negative but you probably have to commend them for the way that they did defend. We fully understand why Wrexham did it but in similar situation last season we did not use tactics like that. "
"I am very positive with everything that we do. It is football but I was left wanting because i like to be entertained. "
