Rochdale 4 Rotherham United 1

You couldn't write the script that Chris Dagnall produced today. After 6 months out with a cruciate knee injury and with only a week of proper training under his belt he climbed off the bench to score an absolutely stunning hat trick




Trailling to Marc Joseph header after just 6 minutes Keith Hill's side continued to press and harry the Rotherham back 4 and deservedly equalised on the half hour when skipper Gary Jones burts into the box after good hold up play by Rene Howe and blasted the ball past Andy Warrington with his right foot.


Jonah pre match with previous record holder Graham Smith

To be fair to Rotherham they treated the game as a must win one and made some positive second half substitutions and that enabled Dale to hit them almost at will. The manager brought on Lee Thorpe and Dagnall after 65 minutes and the new double act produced a near perfect response.

Thorpe did well to turn in the box and find Dagnall for his first goal on 89 minutes, the little striker turning and firing home with his left foot.

Chris Basham, another substitiute, did well to feed Dagnall 5 minutes later and he showed great feet to bring the ball under control and fire a slightly deflected right footed effort home from 15 yards.

Save the best till last. Dagnall controlled a wonderful 50 yard Tom Kennedy pass in the 89th minute before curling an instant left footed effort beyond warrington's despairing dive.

A fairy tale day for Chris Dagnall as Fortress Spotland returns.