After promising performances on the road at Wrexham, Orient and Lincoln, it was back to Spotland with a bump, as the curse of the nil nil's returned to haunt us once again in a generally disappointing match. To be fair Cheltenham came for the draw, and deserved their point, but there lots of disappointed faces all round at the final whistle.

The day started with a covering of snow on the Spotland pitch, and the game was in doubt for some time. Once again, an army of club officials, trainees and volunteers turned out in the cold to clear the pitch of it's white covering. Once it was cleared, the pitch was in good nick underneath, and Premiership referee Uriah Rennie passed the pitch fit to play on.

Around 250-300 vocal supporters made the long journey northwards to cheer on the Football League new boys. This was a match that they had pinpointed to show how much their team has progressed since the first match of the season, when Dale beat them 2-0 in a very convincing victory. Dale kicked towards the Sandy Lane end in the first half, with Keith Hill returning in defence. Mark Monington picked up a knock on Friday and was forced out as a result. Graham Lancashire was another player to pick up a knock in training, so Michael Holt was recalled to the bench.

The first half was mostly Dale. Cheltenham had an early chance within the first five minutes, but that was to prove their last of the half. The rest of the game saw Dale have the bulk of the possession, but yet again, despite all the possession, Dale failed to put the visitors under any sustained spell of pressure.

Dale were gifted a great chance to take the lead after about twenty minutes, when a cross came over and was literally caught by Brisset. Referee Rennie could do nothing else other than give the penalty. Quite why Brisset was not sent off for deliberate handball, I have no idea. I think he tried to claim that he heard a whistle from the crowd, but there was definitely no whistle from that part of the ground. Tony Ellis stepped up to take the penalty, but hit a poor shot about a yard to the keeper's right who blocked Ellis's effort with ease.

Tony Ellis has a good effort just a few minutes later to make up for his poor penalty, when he hit a firm shot which slipped underneath keeper Book, but he managed to grab it at the second attempt.

In the last few games, Dale have managed to step up a gear in the second half. Today was different. The second half was very disappointing, with Dale failing to really trouble the Cheltenham goal. They had the usual few shots but nothing to force Book into any save.

Cheltenham had a couple of chances as Dale committed players forward. Howells had a great effort, but Edwards managed to pull off a great save to prevent him scoring, and the rebound was again beaten out.

Perhaps it was inevitable that the game between two teams who have managed just 31 goals between them in 38 matches would finish nil-nil. It was sad to see Cheltenham playing for a nil-nil in injury time, by trying to keep the ball near the corner flag despite being on the attack. A goalless draw was the fair result. The sooner Graham Lancashire is fit again the better.

Dale: Edwards, Evans, Searle, Hill, Bayliss, Ford (Atkinson), Peake, Jones, Bettney (Flitcroft), Platt, Ellis 

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