Oldham 1-2 Rochdale: Match Report

Chris O’Grady’s brace against his old club was enough to claim victory for Rochdale in an entertaining local derby. Despite the Latics looking like the hungrier of the two teams, the 'Dale defence was solid and the visitors kept the home side at bay until they went down to ten men.

Oldham captain Reuben Hazell was at fault for both of the goals after fouling Craig Dawson in the box and conceding a penalty. ‘Dale top scorer Gary Jones stepped up to take the spot kick and hit the post but was thankful when Chris O’Grady hit home the rebound. Ten minutes later Hazell played an awful back-pass which O’Grady pounced on and doubled their lead.

The game looked to be out of Oldham’s reach until Scott Wiseman found himself seeing red for a seemingly innocuous foul on Cedric Evina. Furman volleyed one back from 15 yards but the home side were unable to find the equaliser in the dying minutes despite piling immense pressure on their rivals.

The referee had an astonishingly bad game and unfortunately most of the media attention has been focused on his performance rather than the exciting encounter between the sides. Paul Dickov was left frustrated by the decisions he made and ‘Dale manager, Keith Hill, agreed it was “a little bit of a farce”. The red card was so baffling that the Oldham fans began chanting choruses of “You don’t know what you’re doing” towards the man in black with Paul Dickov focusing on this point afterwards and agreeing that the referee had a poor game.

Oldham, as well as the defeat, now have to wait on the medical news concerning centre-back Jean-Yves Mvoto after he was stretchered off. The manager is hoping it won’t be too serious but admits that the player has taken a “bad whack” to his ankle. 

Dickov said “I’m disappointed, but delighted with the boys. I feel we were the better team today from start to finish.”

“Full of character we are, if we keep playing like that we’ll go up this league”, he added.

It was a tight encounter and one Rochdale were lucky to leave with all three points rather than just the one as Oldham pressed very hard for an equaliser after reducing the goal deficit by half after Wiseman’s dismissal.

“It was a bit nervy at the end. I thought we were really good defensively”, said Dale manager, Keith Hill. The manager praised the team’s resoluteness and is pleased with the fact that ‘Dale have notched up 6 points from their two games of the new year.

Rochdale move up to 16^th in the league just one point behind Oldham who sit in 12^th.

Teams:

Oldham: Brill, Mvoto (Trotman 20), Hazell, Furman, Taylor (Millar 83), Lee, Stephens, Morais, Evina, Tounkara, White (Brook 78). Subs not used: Fleming, Black, Kelly, Feeney.

Goals: Furman 87

Rochdale: Lillis, Wisemen, Widdowson, Holness, Dawson, Kennedy, Barry-Murphy (Done 61), Jones, Thompson (Adams 55), Grant (Akpa Akpro 83), O’Grady. Subs not used:  Edwards, T Kennedy, Thompson, Elding.

Goals: O' Grady 64, 76