Cup joy a tough
JUST how do you follow a 2-2 draw before a packed house in the fifth round of the FA Cup against Tottenham?
Answer: With great difficulty. Keith Hill had alluded to the mental stress upon his players following the magnificent display against Tottenham and with a replay at Wembley on the horizon.
Could they turn focus back so quickly to the task of League One survival before a Crown Oil Arena which looked sparsely populated in comparison to the weekend’s occasion?
In part, yes – Dale had the better of the contest without ever recapturing the highs of their performance before a national audience against Premier League opponents.
In the end it was a result which suited neither side, with both teams stuck in the bottom four of the division.
Buoyed by their confidence-boosting display against Tottenham just three days earlier, Keith Hill named an unchanged starting line-up and his men started the game on the front foot, twice being denied by the woodwork during a strong opening to the match.
A purposeful run towards goal from Callum Camps ended with Mark Kitching firing a low drive wide while Dons defender Scott Wootton crashed a miscued clearance against the crossbar when Matty Done’s whipped-in delivery from the left proved too hot to handle.
Andy Cannon was next to find the woodwork when he side-stepped Dean Lewington and smashed a fierce drive against the bar and on the half hour mark Joe Rafferty’s inviting pass across the face of goal somehow evaded Stephen Humphrys.
For the visitors, Keiran Agard dragged an effort wide from 20 yards and later in the half got in behind Ryan Delaney in the right-hand channel and fired on target from 12 yards, Josh Lillis grasping the effort safely to his chest.
Dons goalkeeper Lee Nicholls comfortably gathered a curling shot from Cannon while Lewington deflected Humphrys effort wide after a defence-splitting pass from Camps played in the on-loan Fulham frontman.
The first half ended with Nicholls again denying Cannon with a routine save when the Dale midfieder sent a shot towards the goalkeeper’s near post.
With a quarter of an hour played in the second half and neither side looking close to making a breakthrough, Hill introduced striker Steve Davies, whose stoppage time goal on Sunday earned Dale a Wembley replay against Spurs next week.
Davies’ arrival lifted the crowd and kickstarted a brief period of Dale pressure during which Done’s cross from the left was headed into the side-netting by Ian Henderson.
There was a rare threat from the Dons midway through the half when Agard seized upon a loose ball in a crowded penalty area following a corner. With his back to goal he turned and blasted towards the roof of Lillis’ net but Kitching was superbly positioned to
‘It was a night where you know you are going to get a stoning if you don’t win it’
block the effort and protect his goalkeeper.
Cannon blasted on target but straight at Nicholls and the game petered out with neither side looking like scoring in the closing stages.