Dale dig deep to take well earned share
ROCHDALE gained a wellearned, hard-fought point on the road on Tuesday evening from a 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park.
Both goals came in the first half, with Ian Henderson’s 35th minute strike cancelled out soon after by Kane Hemmings who equalised for the hosts.
There were three changes to the side that lined up against AFC Wimbledon at the weekend.
James Ball returned from suspension to replace Connor Malley, whilst Cameron John and Henderson came in for Femi Seriki and Devante Rodney.
The home side dominated for much of the first half but it was Dale who broke the deadlock before Rovers
got back on level terms four minutes later.
Although Rochdale were on the back foot, the hosts weren’t really able to test Richard O’donnell and only carved out a few half chances.
Hemmings skewed a shot wide of the target, before he rose to meet Josh Dacres-cogley’s cross and glanced a header past the post.
Kieron Morris then fired over from the edge of the area, whilst there was some good defending from Ethan Ebanks-landell to block Hemmings’ low shot behind.
And Rochdale opened the scoring, arguably, against the run of play in the 35th minute.
Jimmy Keohane sent a ball over the top for Henderson to run onto and he fired beyond Ross Doohan and into the bottom corner.
The goal saw the Dale forward reach a special milestone, as he equalled the club’s record number of goals scored, held by Reg Jenkins who played for Rochdale from 196473.
But the lead was short-lived and Tranmere equalised four minutes later.
Hemmings stole a yard on the Dale defence to get on the end of Morris’ delivery and he bundled the ball home from close range, as the sides went in level at the break.
The second period was evenly matched for long spells and neither side created much during the early exchanges of the half.
Most notably, Toumani Diagouraga drove up the middle before playing in Henderson who in turn sent Tyrese Sinclair through on goal and he had a shot kept out by Doohan.
Soon after up the other end, Lee O’connor struck a rising effort over the bar from 30-yards.
Rochdale’s first substitution of the game followed in the 66th minute, with Abraham Odoh making way for Rodney.
Rovers enjoyed a spell on top and had a couple of efforts on goal.
O’donnell was called into action to beat away Morris’ low shot, before holding Hemmings’ strike from the resulting corner.
The hosts were then denied by the woodwork, when Jordan Turnbull saw his header from a ball in from the right bounce off the cross bar and behind.
There was a triple substitution with three minutes of the match remaining - Ethan Brierley, Seriki and Rayhaan Tulloch came on for Kelly, Sinclair and John, respectively.
Rochdale went in search of the winner, with Ebanks-landell hitting wide from a free-kick in stoppage time and Tulloch seeing an effort kept out by the ‘keeper.