Strange days indeed

Macclesfield Town FC 0 - 1 Rochdale AFC

Journey:

"Of course I didn't take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present. It was her birthday.

Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves."

Bill Shankly

Like Mr. Shankly I also had the good sense to avoid getting married during the football season. Although unlike Mrs. Shankly, it wasn't Mrs. Eden-Maughan's birthday today - you may recall I went through that performance in the midst of trying to get to Accrington. No. Today is Valentine's day - so I took her to watch Rochdale's first team - at Macclesfield.

Shankly 0 - 1 Eden-Maughan.

However, no trip out with Mrs. Eden-Maughan excludes some element of shopping. So I took her to the club shop at Spotland. I bought her a scarf. Well I gave her the money for a scarf - and then stood outside chatting to Mr. Culshaw and Mr. Brookes.

With Mrs. Eden-Maughan suitably lavished with gifts - she got a pencil case with the change - we set off to collect Mr. Keane and England's future No.1.

The trip to the Moss Rose was enlivened by Mr. Keane recounting the deeds of The Mighty Yellow's in this morning's tie with Seedfield Boys; ably abetted by Keane jr. In what sounded like a 'lively' encounter (there was some unpleasantness at half time - not between the players - between the dads) the sons of Rochdale prevailed over the sons of Bury - 3-2. An omen?

Maybe...

Getting to Macc is never a pleasant business. It is in one of the few bits of England which is nowhere near a motorway. There are several ways to get there - they are all rubbish and take ages. Today it took nearly an hour and a half.

Weather:

Due to a quirk of fate Macclesfield's ground, Moss Rose, is the football ground (aside of Spotland) I have visited most. In the days before Accrington and Bury joined us in League 2 - Macc was Rochdale's local derby. On virtually everyone of those occasions I have been drenched or frozen - usually both.

Therefore it was with no small degree of trepidation that I watched a fine drizzle sweep my windscreen as I parked up. As I arrived in the away end I was greeted by Playboy Dan and Amancalledshaun.

'Looks like rain'.

It did - but it didn't. Instead we were treated to the impending threat of foul weather - an oppressive overcast accompanied by a breezeless calm. It looked like it was planning something - possibly a rain of fishes.

Around 1000 Rochdalian faces (including a battalion strength detachment of the Noisy Boys) would spend as much time watching the sky as they did watching the game over the next two hours.

Food:

I have had volcanic pie - Rotherham. Burnt pie - Gillingham. Wet pie - Port Vale. Various pie - Chester.

Today marked a new landmark. Air pie.

Two bites and I hadn't even got to the filling.

Mrs. Eden-Maughan and Mr. Keane had the pasty - delightful, apparently.

Ground:

Moss Rose. Roll it around in your mind. It conjours up an image of hanging baskets, small sandwiches - with the crusts cut off, a quaint old pub - probably with Morris Dancers outside, straw hats and the gentle drone of dragon flies on warm summer afternoons.

It is nothing like that...

At all...

In any way.

Action:

News. Well after the non-event that was the transfer window, not much. Higginbotham has gone back to Accrington on loan. The FA has launched a competition called 'Get On' which will reward the best football chants in the English league's. I have entered my own personal favourite - 'Dale!' - fingers crossed.

Dale have been shortlisted for an award by the FA - competing against the likes of Rotherham, Bradford, Brentford and Wycombe - Rochdale have the chance of becoming the Cuddly-uddly-wuddliest team in League 2 (or Community Team of the year as the nice folks at Ashton Gate prefer to call it). Which is just super.

Dale would begin today's encounter unchanged from their visit to Chester.

The first ten minutes or so were a scrappy, inconclusive affair. Rochdale struggled to bring the wing men, Adams and Buckley, into the game. Part of the pitch preparation at Moss Rose seemed to have involved some form of moto-cross - meaning that passing the ball effectively would be an art in itself. The Silkmen displayed a good deal of pace up front. Which was handy considering the number of long balls they would have to chase, although having got to the ball - they had surprisingly little idea what to do with it.

It wasn't pretty - but, it wasn't raining - fishes or otherwise. Which was a result in itself.

What next then? Well in spite of the furrowed and rutted playing surface Rochdale began to pass the ball - on the ground. This was clearly something that Macc had not seen previously and were entirely unprepared for.

Dale danced around a static and transfixed Macclesfield side who were apparently in awe of this strange, alien variety of football their northern cousins had dreamt up. It is probably a good job we didn't show them the fire as well - we are very proud of the fire - it would probably have been too much for them - we are keeping it under our hats for now.

No, not literally - that would just be foolhardy.

However, in spite of enjoying almost all of the posession and pushing the corner count into double figures - none of it converted into goals. The pick of the Dale efforts was an 18 yard blast from Wiseman - who had found himself in acres of space on the edge of the Macc area - which produced an excellent save from Brain in the Macc goal.

With the final seconds of the first period ebbing away Dagnall burst into the Silkmen's penalty area. As he shaped to shoot he was swept off his feet by a desperate lunge from Brain. Mr. Sarginson (yes, he of Lincoln fame) pointed to the spot. After a moment or two of indecision in the Dale ranks, Kennedy strode forward. Ball on the spot - tick. Step back - tick. Forward and strike - tick. Back of the net - tick. 1-0 Dale!

Which took us rather neatly to half time.

This season has been full to the brim with unusual happenings - well it has. Visitor's from foreign lands, meeting God (although he turned out to be a steward - or that was his story anyway), eating eel's and being on the wireless amongst many other random incidents. However, until today none of these events have implicated me in any kind of criminal misdoings.

Today I became involved in a kidnapping.

Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Duck and his associate Mr. Chuck. Under normal circumstances they reside on a desk somewhere in Rochdale Infirmary. However, they have recently been dragged from the comfort and care of their owner by a cabal of nameless criminals. Being a wiley pair (considering that Mr. Duck is yellow, hollow and made of plastic and that Mr. Chuck is also yellow but in his case made of nylon) they had slipped the clutches of their captors and sought refuge in the boot of my car. Under the circumstances it seemed only fair to take them to see some high quality football.

I understand that Mr. Duck is on Facebook (Ed D. Duck) - you can follow his ongoing adventures there.

Shall we get on with the the second half? I think that would be best...

Having been mesmerised by all that fancy football in the first period, Macc decided that enough was enough and took the game to Rochdale the best way they knew how. It wasn't the beautiful game but it was effective for the home side. Dale either couldn't or wouldn't break Macc's hold on the game. Almost all of the second period was played in the Dale half.

That said genuine efforts on goal for Macclesfield were rare indeed. There were a couple of shouts for penalty's in Macc's favour - both turned down. One of them was given as a freekick just outside the box which required a solid block from Fielding to steer the ball out of play.

Aside of that a solid Dale defence ensured that chances for the Silkmen remained just that. Chances.

The main source of entertainment in the second half was the Noisy Boys persistent baiting of the Macc manager, Keith Alexander - and his rather baffling decision to encourage them by waving and at one point conducting the singing.

1-0 it finished.

Summary:

Another clean sheet. Another three points and Dale's first 1-0 of the season.

At no point today did I have any concern that Dale would lose, let alone concede. After an indifferent start Rochdale played most of the first half in or around the Macc 18 yard area. The second half was an almost Wycombe like display where in spite of Macclesfield's very best efforts the Rochdale defence was seldom seriously troubled.

Strange days indeed.

Turner Watch:

Obviously Mr Turner was very disappointed after the BAFTA's. In an interview last week he commented, 'It's just jobs for't lads innit - a closed shop - I mean Kate Winslet! Do I need to say any more?'

Mr Turner would have joined us today - but he couldn't get out of his front door due to the volume of post.

14/02/09