It wasn't Michael Holt's day as he had one penalty saved and had another crash off the crossbar as Dale missed the chance to put one over on Torquay.

It wasn't Michael Holt(pictured left)'s day as he had one penalty saved and had another crash off the crossbar as Dale missed the chance to put one over on Torquay. This completes a league double for Torquay over Dale this season.

Dale got precisely what they deserved from their trip to Plainmoor- nothing. On paper it looked like we should have won, a 2-1 defeat with two missed penalties, but Dale managed to create very few chances indeed, despite Barrow opting to play with three forwards. Torquay's ex bury keeper Neville Southall was voted man of the match, but with the exception of the penalty save, he had nothing to do.

Dale started with the same team as the previous Saturday with the exception of the return of Edwards between the sticks. There was again no place for Peakey, though he was hovering around, despite not even being named as a sub. Rumours have it that there has been a fall out involving Peake and the management.

The first few minutes had Dale making a decent start, but to be honest Torquay are nothing special and are the sort of teams who must be beaten home and away if a promotion campaign is to be mounted. The fact they have only won seven games all season, is made all the worse when you consider that two of those have been against us!

Dale made a couple of strides into their half, but any efforts were directed straight at the rotund Torquay keeper. He was never seriously tested at all, but the home side looked a poor comparison with last season's high flyers which saw them make the play off finals. After fifteen minutes, Bryson was caught in possession, and the ball was threaded through to Bedeau who had loads of space and time, and he confidently knocked the ball over the top of the diving Welshman Edwards.

From this point Torquay actually stepped up a gear and went close to scoring a couple of further times, but Edwards saved easily.

Ten minutes after the goal, Dale were given the perfect opportunity to get back into the game when Holty was pulled from behind in the box. Holt took over the duties of penalty taker from Painter who has missed a couple this year. Holt hit a poor penalty to Southall's left giving the big man a relatively easy save. Dale should have been awarded another penalty a few minutes after when Holt was again on the receiving end, but the ref waved play on despite this looking more of a penalty than the first one.

The second half was pretty similar to the first. Dale created very few chances and Torquay grabbed a goal when their player received the ball in acres of space and again fired over the top of the diving Edwards to double their advantage. Dale never looked like getting back into it, but were given the chance five minutes from time when we were awarded another penalty following a late tackle on Andy Farrell on the edge of the penalty area. There was no doubt in Holty's mind that he was going to take this one, but he fired the ball onto the cross bar and over for a goal kick.

Dale grabbed a late goal following a cross from the left hand side, and Morris produced a neat finish to steer the ball past Southall into the back of the net. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time left for Dale to steal anything from this match.

Dale: Edwards, Sparrow(Williams), Barlow (Stuart), Hill, Farrell, Johnson, Carden, Painter, Morris, Bryson (Jones), Holt.
 

Photo: Action Images

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