Dale crashed to a 2-1 defeat as their Peterboro hoodoo continued for another season. This results leaves Dale with a mountain to climb if they are to reach the play offs.

A crowd of just under three thousand turned up to see if Dale could continue their good form of late. Tony Ellis was rewarded for his goal on Saturday with a recall meaning Graham Lancashire had to make do with a place on the bench. Other than that, it was the same side that beat Shrewsbury convincingly at the weekend.

The game started at a thousand miles an hour, and immediately, Peterboro looked a far more impressive side than the one Dale came close to beating earlier this month. They had a couple of early efforts, but none which troubled keeper Edwards. The ball was zipping about, and at times Dale were struggling to keep up. As you would expect, Peterboro were most effective when they played the ball in the air, with Dale winning very few headers all night.

Five minutes into the game, Graeme Atkinson was left clattered on the floor after a fair tackle by the Posh right back. He picked up a knee injury, and was forced out of the game by this. While he received treatment, Dale were reduced to ten men, and were soon under the cosh. Posh were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box. Veteran striker and Player-Coach Steve Castle, who once bagged four goals in a game at Spotland for Orient, stepped up and curled the ball into the top corner. This was an identical free kick to the one conceded by Edwards against Leyton Orient late in March. Same position, same result. The Posh had done their homework. It was claimed that Edwards wasn't ready for the free kick, but to be honest he had long enough, as the there was a lengthy stoppage as Atkinson limped off to be replaced by Sean McAuley.

Minutes later, Dale were back in it. They stepped up a gear, and looked to get back into the match as soon as possible and found themselves awarded a penalty. Tony Ellis had his legs taken, with back to goal just inside the box. Gary Jones stepped up to score his seventh goal of the season, giving the keeper no chance at all.

The rest of the half consisted of some excellent stuff. It was end to end with Dale doing their very best to keep up with the pace of the visitors, who dictated the play. Ellis came close to grabbing a lead for Dale but he found himself too close to the keeper to really test him.

Neil Edwards redeemed himself from any possible blame for the free kick when he pulled off one of the best saves I have seen in my life. There was a goalmouth scramble mostly caused by the Dale defence, when two defenders went for the same ball. The ball spiralled towards the very top corner, but Edwards somehow dived full length to tip it wide for a corner. It truly was a fantastic save.

The turning point in the game came not long before half time. Striker Clarke, who scored a great goal against Dale at London road earlier this month, chased a ball into the box. Neil Edwards came out to dive at his feet, and it looked like Clarke had left his feet dangerously as Edwards dived for it. Somehow, and he was the only one who saw whatever he saw, the referee decided it was a penalty. I had a great view of the incident, and it was never a penalty. In fact, when it happened, the thought of the referee giving a penalty never entered my mind. I honestly thought Dale were being awarded a free kick for dangerous play by Clarke when he blew his whistle. Anyway, up stepped goalscorer Castle who scored with his shot which went to Edwards' right. This came as Dale had been the better team in the minutes approaching this.

After this, Peterboro played the game as they wanted to, and Dale struggled to put them under any real pressure. The penalty decision really knocked the stuffing out of Dale for a while, both on and off the pitch.

The second half saw Peterboro soak up any pressure and rely on their ability to strike on the break, which they did well. Dale failed to inflict their passing game onto the match and found Peterboro extremely difficult to break down. In fact for the whole of the second half, Dale never put the Peterboro keeper under any real pressure, and it wasn't until injury time that he had to make a save of any note when he did well to save McAuley's effort. Dale had a good shout for a second penalty themselves when Tony Ford appeared to have his legs taken from under him, but nothing was given. Parkin gambled in the second half by throwing on Lancashire as an extra striker meaning Dale had three forwards on the pitch, but this failed to give Dale any advantage.

The final whistle brought the inevitable to a close. It all came down to what was a wrong decision by the referee. That decision could well cost Dale any chance of making the play offs. Fair enough, you can't tell what would have happened if it wasn't given, but dale were well on top at that particular time, and had come close to taking the lead themselves. It knocked the stuffing out of Dale, and they never really recovered from this decision. Posh held onto their lead well, and looked unlikely to lose the lead as they did at London Road three weeks ago. I don't think you could fault any of the Dale players for effort, as many were doing at the final whistle. Jones had a superb game, as did Evans, in very difficult circumstances. Peterboro did everything right after taking the lead. Tonight, just wasn't our night. Every time you try to analyse what went wrong, you keep going back to that penalty decision. It could prove to be very crucial to the outcome of our season.

Dale: Edwards, Evans, Hill, Monington, Ford (Lancashire), Flitcroft (McClare), Jones, Peake, Atkinson (McAuley), Platt, Ellis

Photo: Action Images

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