Stretched Dale
THE severe thinning down of Rochdale’s squad finally caught up with the men from the Crown Oil Arena as they were beaten by highflying Bradford City at Valley Parade.
Dale have coped admireably in recent weeks with the losses of such influential players as Jamie Allen, Peter Vincenti and Jim McNulty, and more recently the omission of Ian Henderson and Keith Keane through injury and Calvin Andrew through suspension.
Only Keane of the aforementioned players started at Bradford, while Matty Lund was added to the absentee list as part of the Northern Ireland squad.
After competing on an even keel in the opening half hour, two goals in three minutes just before half time meant the visitors had a task on their hands to turn the game around, a task made even harder when Niall Canavan was sent off for a second bookable offence just before the hour mark.
Bradford increased their lead from the resulting free-kick, before Mark Marshall completed the rout four minutes later.
With a squad so devastated by injuries, suspensions, illness and an international call up, Rochdale manager Keith Hill was forced make changes to his depleted squad.
Three academy players made the journey to Bradford with the Rochdale side, one of whom, 16-year-old midfielder Aaron Morley, was named in the starting eleven. Matty Gillam and Andy Collins were the other academy products named on the bench.
In a scrappy opening few minutes, both teams struggled to get a hold of the game. But it was Rochdale who started to look the more threatening through Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, who beat Bradford’s Stephen Darby for pace, the experienced right back managing to recover and block an attempted cross.
Dale began to grow into the game and had a couple of half chances, Joe Rafferty’s free kick fell to Andy Cannon but his shot from inside the box flew wide of the target.
Rafferty then unlocked the Bantams’ defence again with a cross, but former Bradford player Steven Davies was caught out in an offside position.
Rochdale continued to press Bradford, but striker Billy Clarke almost put the hosts ahead from a free kick, only to fire just wide from 20 yards.
Against the run of play, Bradford took the lead when Nicky Law’s cross – following a neat one-two with Timothee Dieng – evaded everybody but Clarke, who struck home on 41 minutes from eight yards out.
The goal gave the hosts confidence, and backed by their fans, they started to take control of the game.
Clarke almost got another but saw his shot tipped onto the post by Josh Lillis. However, the hosts doubled their lead from the resulting corner.
Dale cleared the initial ball which found Clarke on the right, and he lofted a cross which was met the head of Dieng who glanced the ball into the far corner.
The half time whistle gave Dale the chance to regroup for the second half, and the introduction of Reuben Noble-Lazarus, replacing Morley, added a much needed change of pace to Dale’s midfield.
A frantic goal mouth scramble almost got Dale back in the game, but the Bradford defence managed to hack the ball clear.
What was always going to a be difficult second half was made even harder when Canavan fouled Joshua Cullen and as a result was sent off in the 58th minute following his second bookable offence.
Bradford seized their