Gary Jones produced an equaliser deep into injury time to rescue a point for Dale when it looked like they had blown it. Dale gifted Hull with two goals, both courtesy of poor back passes.

As the cliche goes, Dale produced the "Get out Jail Free Card" deep into injury time when a cruel deflection off a Gary Jones shot went past the wrong footed Wilson in the Hull goal. It should not have come to this as Dale gifted two goals to a poor looking Hull side who were rightly down to ten men from early in the second half. Teams like Hull need beating if a sustained promotion challenge is to be made.

Manager Steve Parkin decided to stick with the same side that defeated Carlisle earlier in the week. This despite recalls to the squad for injury victims Mark Monington and Neil Edwards who had to make do with places on the bench, meaning Phil Priestley retained his place in the starting line up. There was a decent sized Dale following four hundred or so huddled together in the small terrace which is dominated by the Supermarket.

The game started with Dale attacking the far goal and for a while everything was going according to plan. Dale looked to be a class above Hull and nothing other than three points seemed to be on the cards. Hull looked poor, slow to the ball and incapable of matching the visitors. They came into the game on the back of a dismal run which has seen them fail to win in the last six matches, and it wasn't hard to see why.

Dale had plenty of possession in the early stages, and it looked a matter of time before a goal would be scored. Despite this, out and out chances were thin on the ground, though Platt and Ellis were causing problems for the home side.

At the other end, Phil Priestley was looking a lot more confident than Gibson had been, especially when it came to
crosses. The young keeper looked very competent and took everything in the air. The only problems were coming as a result of a very physical Jason Harris in the Hull line up. Indeed at one point, he just slapped Wayne Evans in the face for no reason whatsoever. Evans had a lot to put up with from Harris, including one challenge which just took Evans out. The ref chose not even to speak to the Hull striker.

Suddenly disaster struck, when Dave Bayliss misdirected the ball back towards Priestley, but Jamie Wood nipped in to push the ball past Priestley. No blame could be attached to Priestley for the goal.

We have seen throughout the season, that when Dale have conceded a goal, they have stepped up a gear immediately. However, today it had the opposite effect and for the rest of the half they failed to get any sort of grip on the game. Hull were buoyant after taking the lead, and were first to most of the balls.

The second half started in much the same vein as the first one had ended. Dale looked a little jaded to be honest, and it wasn't long before Steve Parkin decided to bring on Sean McAuley in place of Dean Stokes who headed straight down the tunnel. This had just the effect we were hoping for, as Dale immediately stepped up a gear and started producing the sort of football we know they are capable of. And within seconds it had paid off. Dale forced a couple of corners which caused problems within the box.

One such opportunity looked to have grabbed an equaliser for Dale, but Ian Goodison produced a wonderful save to tip the ball off the line and over the bar. Unfortunately for the Tigers, he was not their goalkeeper. Bizarrely, the referee failed to see this, and he indicated a corner. The Dale players surrounded the referee in much the same way that the Man Utd players chased the ref at Old Trafford last week. They convinced the referee to have a word with his linesman, who informed him of the handball. To be honest, the Dale players changed the referee's mind, as he had not intention of speaking to his linesman, who had not raised his flag or anything. The Dale players felt very aggrieved by his non decision in the first place, and justice was served eventually, but you could argue that the referee let his profession down by allowing himself to be persuaded by the players.

Anyway, Goodison (no relation to Wayne) was sent off, and Gary Jones stepped up to score with a very well taken penalty. If the keeper Wilson had got a hand to it, the power would probably have taken it in.

From here on in, there was only one team in it. Dale looked to be the confident side from early on in the season, and again it was just a case of waiting for the winner to come against ten men Hull. Despite a couple of free kick which went wide by former bury midfielder and pie fan Gary Brabin, they offered nothing.

Suddenly with ten minutes or so to go, Hull came back into the game. Dale were leaving gaps open at the back, and on a couple of occasions Hull nearly took advantage of this. They looked dangerous and on one attack came very close to scoring. One of their strikers got clean through, but the Dale defence managed to get back in time to put him under pressure, and scramble the ball away.

With just eight minutes left on the clock, history repeated itself. Graeme Atkinson misplaced a pass which left goalscorer Wood the opportunity to nip in again just as he had done in the first half. Again, he made no mistake with his finish, and ten men Hull took the lead.

As with the first goal, this transformed the game completely, and Hull again looked a side worthy of the lead. They certainly did not look like they had one less player than Dale. They got to every ball first, and Dale didn't look capable of getting one point out of a match where three points were there for the taking.

The board indicated that two minutes of injury time were to be played, with a large number of Dale fans deciding enough was enough and having left the ground, and deep, deep into injury time, Dale got a throw in down by the corner flag, which should have been awarded to the home side. This was forced out for another throw which saw the ball go to Gary Jones who got the ball and ran at the home defence. They backed off and off and he fired the ball goalward. The shot did not look threatening, but it took a massive deflection and went straight into the back of the net past Wilson who was left stranded at the other side of the goal. Gary Jones went straight to the Dale fans to celebrate behind the goal. This was almost the last kick of the match as the ref blew up almost straight from the kick off.

As the Dale fans streamed out of the ground, they were reminded of the scenes of last year's SKY match as the Hull supporters hurled abuse at them. The Dale fans were not helped by one Dale fan intent on provoking them, which led to objects being thrown at the Dale fans. Appeals from other Dale fans for him to stop his goading of the Hull fans were ignored. It is just a good thing there was no further trouble outside of the ground.

Photo: Action Images

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