Dale 4 Accrington 2

Keith Hill’s Dale side recorded another home win to stretch their unbeaten run to 6 games after an easy enough victory over John Coleman’s Accrington Stanley.

There were two changes form the Dale side that drew 0-0 at Hereford last time out. Lee Crooks came in for the suspended Nathan Stanton, and Gary Brown being replaced by Simon Ramsden in the starting eleven. Rory McArdle took over the captaincy of the side in both Stanton’s and Gary Jones’ absence.

It was a quiet enough start woth both teams battling it out in this Lancashire derby. Accrington forcing a couple of corners, which were easily dealt with by the Dale defence.

However, it was from one of these corners that Dale broke, and after a great ball by John Doolan set Ben Muirhead away, the Bradford loanee crossed to Adam Le Fondre. His effort was kept out by the visiting keeper, who was helpless as the rebound fell to Adam Rundle, who made no mistake from 6 yards.

Rochdale began to take control and all Accrington could do is give away free-kicks to stop Dale from scoring more. It was from a Muirhead free-kick that Dale did double their lead on 25 minutes. Glenn Murray heading home from the set-piece.

Still the attacking went on from the home side, and it was to be 3-0 just after the half hour mark. David Perkins broke forward before playing in Le Fondre, who forced his way through on the left and pulled back for Murray to make it 3 for Dale and 4 in 4 games for the former Carlisle man.

Murray had the opportunity to complete his first career hat-trick on 35 minutes after being pulled down in the area by Michael Welch. However, his penalty was well saved by Polish keeper Przemyslaw Kazimierczak.

Murray again was denied the match ball, this time by the offside flag as Dale continues to press for a fourth.

It was to remain 3-0 as the sides went in for half time, this keeping up Rochdale’s impressive record of not conceeding a goal in the first half under Hill.

Accrington made changes at half time to try and get to terms with Dale. However, it was still the home side looking the more threatening of the two teams.

Muirhead’s corner was superbly met by the head of the ever-improving McArdle on 63 minutes, but Kazimierczak managed to somehow prevent the stand-in skipper from claiming his first goal of the season.

Adam Le Fondre thought he’d got on the scoresheet just 5 minutes later, however Dale were denied their fourth once again by the offside flag.

Accrington managed a goal on 71 minutes. From a left sided corner, Perkins unluckily miss-placed his header, leaving the simple task of nodding home to Paul Mullin to make it 3-1.

But, just 10 minutes later man-of-the-match Murray won another penalty. It was Welch again who was the culprit, bringing down the striker just inside the area. Murray left the penalty to Le Fondre this time, who scored with ease to seal the win.

There was still time for another goal, and this was provided by Andrew Mangan for Accrington in the 92nd minute. The former Dale trialist benefitting from some poor defending by a tired Crooks, before firing past Gilks for a consolation second for Stanley.

4-2 was the final result as Dale pulled further clear of the danger zone, and nearer to a mid-table finish.

In-form Darlington are next up. They visit Spotland this Saturday looking for revenge after Rochdale’s fine 5-0 win at the TFM Arena in October.