DALE REELING AFTER RHYS’ HORROR KO
ROCHDALE manager Brian Barry-Murphy faces being without Rhys NorringtonDavies for today’s trip to Gillingham after the defender was carried off on a stretcher during the home defeat by Fleetwood.
Norrington-Davies was hurt in a collision with Fleetwood goalkeeper Billy Crellin and was carried off before being taken to hospital with a facial injury.
Barry-Murphy hopes to get some better news on the injury front soon after seeing several players sidelined.
He said of Norrington-Davies: “It’s obviously very painful and a major worry for him and his family, but I think he was in an OK place.
“We’ve had a real bad run of injuries. We’ve got players coming back like Ollie Rathbone and Stephen Dooley, but Matty Done had a slight problem in the second half and we have Aaron Morley missing.
“It’s a difficult time, but I think it’s easy to get bogged down in everything going against you.”
Aaron Wilbraham opened the scoring after 40 minutes, heading Dooley’s corner home at the near post.
The visitors were level nine minutes into the second period, Danny Evans’ cross headed goalwards by Ched Evans and although Robert Sanchez saved, Paddy Madden pounced to convert the loose ball.
Wilbraham fired Dale ahead again on the hour mark, but Fleetwood substitute Kyle Dempsey found the net via a deflection off Wilbraham.
The collision between Crellin and Norrington-Davies led to a lengthy stoppage and 13 minutes time added on.
When play resumed Dale were caught cold, with Wes Burns sweeping home the winner in the 89th minute.
Joey Barton was delighted with his team’s comeback, but was unhappy with the match officials and how they handled the collision between Norrington-Davies and Crellin.
The Fleetwood manager, who will hope to take three more points at home to Bristol Rovers today, said: “It was a strange day, a handball missed on the touchline led to the nasty collision in the second half and I get that they’ve had Christmas Day, but they have to get decisions right because you can endanger the well-being of players.
“Our player was close to being carried off, their player has been and that’s because a linesman isn’t doing what he should be doing. That was frustrating, but thankfully for us we get to take three points back to Highbury. “Boxing Day always throws up a wonderful array of results and this was a cracker. You couldn’t take your eyes off the game.” Barton added: “It wasn’t the game either myself or Brian Barry-Murphy would have envisaged but thankfully we came out of it on the right side.”