Dale came closing to securing all three points against their Cumbrian Rivals,

Dale came closing to securing all three points against their Cumbrian Rivals, but slipped up in the last few minutes when Mark Monington needlessly headed the ball into the back of his own net when unchallenged.

For the second time in a week, Mark Monington got the decisive goal at Spotland. Unfortunately, Mono's goal this week was in the wrong net as his own goal game Carlisle an undeserved equaliser.

Dale started the game with a couple of enforced changes. The appeal against Mark Williams was successful, though this lead to a suspension for young Paul Carden. Michael Holt was left out of the squad completely for some unknown reason, so new signing Andy Morris came in to make his debut for the club. Morris almost scored with his first touch for the club, following a corner from the left hand side. Morris met the cross with a firm header, which fired into the top of the net. Unfortunately, the ref saw a push from Alan Johnson (iIthink) and disallowed the goal.

Dale continued to make the most of the running, and despite the odd attack, Dale were looking very comfortable indeed. They played some nice stuff, and Morris looked quite useful with the ball at his feet for a big bloke, and it was no surprise when Dale took the lead. Jason Peake got control of the ball halfway through their half, and started a run towards the box. With Paul Sparrow screaming for the ball on the right hand touch line, Peakey had a go himself and fired it into the bottom corner past the Carlisle keeper Caig.

From here on in, it looked a question of how many Dale would win by, as Carlisle looked a very poor side indeed. They are certainly the worst Carlisle side to be seen since the late 80's when they narrowly escaped relegation. New manager Nigel Pearson certainly has his hands full. Dale finished off the half, continuing to threaten and should have increased their lead by two or three.

The second half started and Dale finished. As we have seen so often this season, Dale played well for one half, then took their foot off the pedal. They allowed the Carlisle side back into the game, when they should have been looking to increase their advantage. However, there looked to be no problems, as Carlisle had failed to threaten. Neil Edwards had a very quiet afternoon indeed.

There was one moment of madness, when Edwards followed out a wayward shot which headed towards the corner flag. As he followed it out, a Carlisle forward chased him down, and managed to win the ball, but Edwards managed to recover sufficiently to make an easy catch to a very weak shot.

The last ten minutes were to be played out as Dale seemed very happy with their one nil win. However, the script was swiftly changed, when Mark Monington headed a safe cross into his own net whilst under no pressure whatsoever. There had been no shout from either Mono or Edwards for the cross and this could be the only reason for what happened. Carlisle had not a shot on goal all through the match (save for a first half disallowed goal that was ruled out due to blatant pushing by the Carlisle players).

Monington almost made amends, when one of his bullet headers went just past the post following a corner. The last few minutes were played out with both teams trying to win it, but to no avail. It was certainly a case of 2 points dropped against what was a very poor team. Dale once again dropped points against one of the lower placed teams in the division, just as they had against Hull, Torquay, Scarboro etc.

Dale: Edwards, Sparrow, Barlow, Hill, Monington, Johnson, Farrell, Painter, Morris, Bryson, Peake

Photo: Action Images

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