First away win
ROCHDALE’S 1-0 win at Northampton Town was their first away triumph of the season but it followed a timeless blueprint.
Calvin Andrew’s second-half strike capped a consummate away display, big-spending Town restricted to a mere handful of chances.
A host of chances were created with Mark Kitching and Callum Camps close to widening the margin of a first win in eight league games.
In becoming the last EFL side to win on the road, Keith Hill’s side struck a big psychological blow in their relegation scrap - despite remaining eight points clear of safety ahead of the visit of Fleetwood Town.
The first chance of the game fell to Camps in outlandish circumstances.
Home keeper Richard O’Donnell sprinted out of goal to beat Calvin Andrew to a long ball but his sliding clearance fell straight to the midfielder in the centre-circle with the net open.
Camps calmly sidefooted towards goal but, with the ball rolling over the line, O’Donnell scampered back 20 yards and clawed it to safety.
The 22 year-old was part of a tigerish midfield alongside Andy Cannon and Mark Kitching that helped set a platform and create constant mismatches in the middle.
Northampton would enjoy their best spell midway through the first-half and their clearest chance came when John-Joe O’Toole headed straight at Joe Lillis when unmarked from a Matt Grimes corner, Jim McNulty hurriedly clearing.
The visitors retained a threat but it was counterattacking menace until the interval as sprightly wing-back Joe Rafferty failed to get good contact on a header from Matt Done’s cross.
Then Rafferty, full of forward thrust, sent a cross over that went all the way through to Kitching at the back post only for the midfielder to lean back on the effort and poke wide.
Kitching would thank his lucky stars seven minutes later when Matt Grimes curled his freekick narrowly wide of the right-hand upright from 20 yards.
Even after half-time, the Yorkshireman looked determined to make amends and sent two promising long-range efforts wide of the mark.
Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink’s hosts were utterly insipid in the second-half, a shadow of the side that held Blackburn Rovers in their previous outing and stitched together three straight wins in January.
As Hill outlined in the build-up to the fixture, Dale aren’t on a level financial playing field in the division - even with relegation rivals Northampton.
But the home side’s new recruits enjoyed miserable outings - Hildeberto Pereira in particular was given a lesson in League One wide play by Done.
Ryan Delaney, one of the Hill’s January acquisitions, helped create the winning goal that came in the 53rd minute.
The Irishman, playing on the left of the back three, strode across the halfway line and dinked a
‘We’re better than the results we’ve had this season. Some performances have been good but we’ve had bad results’
ball over the top of Northampton’s defence for Done to run onto.
Done reached the byline and cut back beyond Ash Taylor’s dive, finding Andrew who was left with the simplest of