Now that's what I call music

Rola Cola Sponsored English League Two
Accrington Stanley FC 2 - 4 Rochdale AFC

Journey

At some ungodly hour this morning 180 Rochdale fans set forth for Accrington - on foot.  It took me almost one second to decide that I wouldn't be joining them.

I would drive.  30 mins tops - mind you parking is a bit of a trick around the Crown Ground - so I set off early.  At 13:15 hrs I saddled up and headed over the hill.

30 mins passed.  In the midst of a vile tempest, I was sat in a traffic jam.  Granted quite a lot of Dale fans were making their way to Accrington - 1600 tickets sold -  but this seemed excessive.  I passed an accident - pretty minor - a few bent bumpers - but this wasn't causing the delay, although it did slow things down a bit.

45 mins passed.  Still tipping down - now completely stationery.

75 mins passed.  Another accident - on the other carriageway.  The whole carriageway was closed.  I won't describe what I saw.  If you saw it, you know what I mean.  If you didn't, you don't want to.  Sobering.

The closure on the dual carriageway combined with the roadworks that girded the approaches to Accrington meant that I wouldn't get to the Crown Ground until 15:10.  Having negotiated the disgruntled lady who handed out the press passes - 'are you gonna blame me for the traffic as well!' - I hot footed it to my seat - slipped on my headphones - apologised to the listening public and Mr. Culshaw, felt grateful to be there at all - and commenced my semi-informed wittering.

I should have walked.  I really should.

Weather 

Daffodils outside Aldi, cold, windy, pouring down - it must be spring again.

Food

The Stanley burger.  A work of genius.  Big burger, cheese, fried onions, choice of sauces - £3.  I had to wait until halftime to get my laughing tackle around one - but it was worth the wait.  About that diet...

Ground

The Crown Ground will probably never win any beauty contests - it is basic at best - but it has charm in spades.   The uncovered away end was packed to over flowing with boisterous Dale fans, the other end was manned by the formidable 'Stanley Ultra's' - complete with a drum and lungs like barrage ballon's - they sang solidly for an hour, bouncing up and down like angry Zulu's.  A good old fashioned derby day.  To add a touch of 'jumpers for goalpost's' to the scene, a knot of boys had clambered up a mound of earth behind the away end - to watch the game for free.  Marvellous.

News

Told you so.  Craig Dawson.  League Two Player of the season.  As if there was ever any doubt...

Not out.  On Boxing day 2007 I wrote my first report.  This is my 100th.  Sincere thanks to both of my readers - I couldn't have done it without you.  To mark a solid rather than spectacular century, the nice folks at Evilscheme - http://www.evilscheme.co.uk/ - have done me a fancy new site banner.  Enjoy. 

Action

Your team for today:

GK: Fielding
Def: Wiseman, Stanton, McArdle, Kennedy(T)
Mid: Taylor, Jones, Kennedy(J)
For: Dagnall, O'Grady, Thompson

Bench: Arthur, Dawson, Flynn, Holness, Toner, Obadeyi, Higginbotham

Dale have enjoyed a good deal of success against Accy since they rejoined the Football League.  Five good wins and a solid draw.  What the scorelines failed to reflect is that most of those games had been pretty close affairs with Stanley giving every bit as good as they got - and on most occasions being pretty unlucky to be on the wrong end of the scoreline.  Then they went and did it - a composed, well planned performance at Spotland in October saw the 'little team that could' finally get their just reward.  What it meant was that this tie was far from a gimme.  Accy have promotion aspirations of their own.  Today would be tough.

On a pitch that had a lot in common with a ploughed field, Mr. Salisbury got things underway...

I could describe the first half in detail - but I won't dwell on it too much.  Accy were pretty much on top from the off Dale had plenty of defending to do - Taylor proved to be the linch pin of the rear guard - Symes could and probably should have opened the scoring but for sharp reactions from Fielding, Kenndy(J) had Dale's best chance but spooned it over the bar from six yards, .

Even if I had wanted to elaborate, I couldn't.  Whenever anything interesting happened an elderly lady jumped up in front of me and remonstrated with players and officials alike.  I had a good view of the back of her coat - but not much else.

As I munched on my illegal half time burger, two familiar faces appeared through the crowd: Mr. Keane and Keane jnr.  Not odd in itself - other than that we were in the Main Stand.  He had finally arrived 30 minutes into the game having braved the traffic - and been put into the Main  Stand because they couldn't squeeze another soul into the away end.  Having reflected briefly on a pretty poor first half for Dale, he disappeared off in search of the legendary Stanley Burger.    

Rochdale started the second half far better than they had left the first - but just as it semed Dale were getting the upper hand - Stanley struck.  With the Rochdale back line's offside trap in disarray Billy Kee deftly slipped the ball through to Symes,  Fielding advanced, Symes didn't flinch.  A cool, placed finish did the rest.  1-0 Accrington.

Four minutes later all seemed lost.  Billy Kee once again did the damage - his inch perfect pass found Miles, once again Fielding stood no chance.  2-0 Accrington.

As Mr. Culshaw summarised the goal I quietly prepared myself for the worst.  There was surely no way back now.  Dale had barely got into the game and now they were 2-0 down.  Damage limitation at best from here on, I thought.

Gary Jones would have no such defeatism...

Two minutes later he popped up in the six yard box to turn in O'Grady's low cross.  2-1!

Within moments, Thompson seemed to have equalized from close range - only for the linesman's waving stick to rule it out.  A heartbeat later Gary Jones popped up on the edge of the area - his drilled shot deflected wildly leaving Accy's keeper, Bouzanis, cursing.  2-2!

The fightback was on.  Three minutes later, an actual fight was on.  As best as I can understand, Taylor and Symes had a bit of a roll on the ground - some punches were thrown and both saw straight red cards.  I wish I could tell you more - but I was looking at old lady coat.

Minutes later, a very strange half got stranger.  From 2-0 down - Dale took the lead.  Dagnall's shot was charged down, Higginbotham swept in and tee'd up O'Grady for his twentieth of the season.  2-3!

Accrington were reeling.  What had been a pretty traumatic few minutes was about to get much, much worse.  Bouzanis attempted to clear up field, the ball hit Dagnall in the kisser and flew into the path of Higginbotham.  With Bouzanis miles out of position, Higginbotham had a quick look and let fly from just inside the Accrington half.  Bouzanis looked devastated, Higginbotham looked delighted.  2-4! 

Mr. Salisbury blew his whistle to bring matters to a close on the most extraordinary 45 minutes of football I have ever seen - including the bits which were mostly coat.

Speak Your Brains

Your cast for today: me and 1600 delerious Dale fans.

• Bournemouth lost - Dale are now 11 points clear.
• 2-0 down to 2-4 up - now that's what I call a comeback!
• You have got to feel sorry for Accrington - they had done everything right - John Coleman will be having nightmares about this one for months.
• Gary Jones.  Right man, right place, right time.
• Kallum Higginbotham.  Only scores two kinds of goal: Crucial - Dagenham, Outrageous - Crewe and again today.  The boy is back to his best.
• As I left the Crown Ground I passed the away end - hundreds had stayed behind and they were singing:  'AND NOW YA GONNA BELIEVE US!  THE DALE ARE GOIN UP!'.  Now that's what I call music.    

Failure to communicate

Accrington Stanley FC 1 - 3 Rochdale AFC

Journey:

Ever lost your mobile phone? I did the next best thing this weekend - I lost the charger - predictably the battery went dead on Friday night.

I spent years avoiding having one and this weekend I realised that I can't live without one. Simple operations like meeting people for a pint or organising a family meal become like highly elaborate logic problems. This is nothing to what it can do for organising an away trip - even if it is just to Accrington.

My first mistake was trying to be clever...

Today is Mrs. Eden-Maughan's birthday. I had deployed a clever strategy of leading her to believe that I wasn't buying her a present - because I am taking her on holiday next week. However, my cunning plan was to leave for the game a little early and pick up her present (a new camera) from Curry's - thus surprising and delighting her at my thoughtfulness when I got home again. Having picked up the camera I would speed on to Mr. Keane's - pick him and Keane jnr. up and head for Accrington.

There were of course problems. I was kept waiting in Curry's Rochdale branch for fifteen minutes to discover they didn't have the one I wanted - but no matter - the sales assistant assured me that a quick trip to their Oldham branch would see me right. Oldham didn't have one either. I was desperate by now...

A further ten minutes to find any camera that was in stock and fit the bill rolled by. Then another fifteen minutes to find the right case. Finally at 14:20 I stumbled back to my car - camera in hand. There was no time to pick up Mr. Keane now - I headed straight for the ground - under normal circumstances I would just ring him and let him know... but - no phone.

Having got to the ground I used Mr. Turner's phone to ring Mrs. Eden-Maughan to see if Mr. Keane had been in touch. He had. Of course she had told him I was on my way to pick him up - which of course I wasn't. This - was going to end badly.

I finally plucked up the courage to ring Mr. Keane on Mr. Turner's phone - he sounded less than happy. Much less than happy. Fortunately, he had decided to set off after waiting for me for almost an hour. Ten minutes into the game Mr. Keane and Keane jnr trudged into the ground with faces like the proverbial thunder cloud (albeit in Mr. Keane's case clad in another pair of designer shades - where does he get them all from?). I spent the rest of the game apologising.

Two lessons emerge from this little debacle:

1) Keep your mobile phone and essential accessories about your person at all times.

2) Do not try to organise overly elaborate surprises for your nearest and dearest - you'll be sorry.

Weather:

People rave about the north eastern United States in autumn, they gush about the southern African savannah lands at sunset, enthuse about the Amazon rainforest at dawn and emote about the Alps in winter.

All these places are pretty special, but...

Try driving around eastern Lancashire on a warm sunny day. Stunning.

Food:

A cheese burger and a coke - £6. It was a big burger, very big in fact - and very tasty, but at £6 we are getting into Wembley territory. Now let's be totally frank - The Crown Ground is not Wembley.

Ground:

It would be easy to criticize the Crown Ground - or Fraser Eagle Stadium as it prefers to be called these days - one Dale fan did just this with a rather bemused steward. My guess is that the steward wasn't empowered to commission major re-development of the ground - so I suppose the rant was pretty pointless.

Accrington have recently made the leap from the Conference and the Crown Ground is unashamedly a Conference ground. The away area is located behind one goal with an overspill area to the right - it is all open. On another day - another rainier day - I suspect I would have been less tolerant of the facillities. But, in the last of the late summer sunshine - it was ideal.

1200 Dale fans made the trip - probably all nursing mild sunburn to the left side of their faces by now.

Action:

Dale had got back to winning ways last week - albeit a little fortunately. Could the words 'Dale and 'back to back wins' appear in the same sentence by the final whistle? On paper at least Accrington should present less of a challenge than Chesterfield had - but as the game started only two points separated the sides in the league.

As it transpired only two minutes separated Dale from going behind.

Some inexplicably slack Dale defending allowed Stanley's Miles to tee up from twenty yards. A dipping, rocket of a shot cleared Russel and found the back of the net. 1-0 Stanley.

What followed was quite painful to watch. Having started poorly and conceded so early, Dale proceded to be systematically ripped apart by Accrington. Chance after chance came to Stanley and only Russel's gymnastics, some spirited but slightly disjointed Dale defending and some indifferent Accrington finishing kept the deficit to one goal.

Around thirty seven minutes the ball arrived at the feet of the Shaker Maker who did what he does best - charge the opposition defences. The consequences were predictable. An ill judged lunge from Stanley's scorer, Miles, saw Buckley sprawling in the box - Mr. Probert had little doubt about the penalty - St. Adam made no mistake. 1-1.

Bouyed by the goal, Dale began to get into gear and created a few more chances - but as half time was indicated, 1-1 it remained.

During the interval, The Playboy put in his now customary appearance. He also made a very valid observation. I am not the only person eligable to complete the 101 Project - The Playboy has also been to every game this season. On that basis he asked if he could have a 101 Project T-Shirt - I was seriously considering this when he ruined it by asking if they came in medium.

International man of mystery you may be Playboy - but a medium, never.

The second half started brightly for Accrington - some nice passing gave them a golden opportunity to take the lead, but once again a poor finish bedevilled them. This was Stanley's high water mark - from this point Dale took control of the game.

Rhodes, Jones, Buckley, Rundle and LeFondre all had chances to take the lead for Dale - but in spite of all the opportunities Accrington held firm. The frustration was evident amongst the Dale players - it seemed like the goal would never come. Thankfully the deadlock was broken on 57. The Shaker Maker - who else - drove down the right flank, cut inside and delivered a powerful low shot. Arthur in the Stanley goal simply couldn't get down quickly enough. 2-1 Dale.

As now seems to be the custom, Buckley disappeared into the adoring Dale crowd. Some minutes later, his team mates dragged him out.

Dagnall joined on sixty three and added to the Dale charge. The Accrington back four were really struggling with their off-side trap and the Dale attackers sprung it again, and again, and again - but in spite of all the pressure and chances, the third goal would not come.

Worryingly, Stanley were beginning to come back into the game and had created one or two chances to level the tie.

Nerves didn't stop jangling until the onset of injury time when Rhodes latched onto a ball from Thompson and after an inelegant scramble guided the ball into the goal. 3-1.

Final whistle.

'Dale record back to back wins in glorious late summer sunshine'. Well I did tell you...

Summary:

A bad, bad start - and a determined recovery against a Stanley side who were never really out of it. But for better finishing, Stanley could have been the winners here - that said, Dale could have come away 9-1 to the good - such was the number of chances that were created.

Based on an informal vote in the carpark (pron. 'corpork' in Accrington) - Will Buckley has been promoted to football genius.

Next week see's Rochdale invaded by the gentleman scholars of the Royal Borough of Dagenham for - El Classico Del Norte. We extend a warm welcome to Messers Evans, O'Shaughnessy and their camp followers.

Turner Watch:

Mr. Turner returns from his attempts to rescue the world financial markets to provide an excellent source of shade on what proved to be a very warm day.

28/09/08