Yet another substitute climbed off the bench to become the hero as Adam le Fondre fired home a crucial winner to send his side into the top 7.
To be fair to
The home side got off to the perfect start scoring after just 27 seconds as the Bradford defence dillied and dallied failing to clear the ball not once but twice and they were punished by Dave Perkins' low shot from the edge of the penalty area through the legs of David Weatherall and beyond the despairing dive of goalkeeper Scott Loach.
Within 5 minutes the visitors could have been level with a superbly worked free kick resulting in Eddie Johnson striking the ball against the post.
Chances came and went for both sides before City drew level on the hour. Joe Colbeck was upended in the penalty area by Tom Kennedy and Peter Thorne calmly slid home the resultant penalty, sending Tommy Lee the wrong way.
The home side, needing a win to move into the Play Off places themselves reacted well and created a series of chances with Perkins going close with a spectacular running volley, Lee Thorpe narrowly missing at the near post and substituting Adam le Fondre repeating the dose.
The winning goal did come though and yet agin it would be a substitute who got it as le Fondre latched onto a Lee Thorpe flick and produced an instant finish from 12 yards.
The dying seconds saw City camped in the Dale penalty area with Conlon lashing an Alex Rhodes cross onto the bar and from the subsequent corner pandemonium reigned in the home penalty area with the ball again hitting the woodwork before bouncing down and appearing to hit Kennedy on the head before it was finally cleared.
It was great,cup tie of a game with Bradford City and their tremendous supporters playing their full part. Keith Hill's young braves have fought so long and so hard to get into the top 7 and now it is all about maintaining that position and seeing how far they can go on.
It is also about the town and how it supports this fine young side as we look forward to the visit of Alan Buckley's Grimsby on Saturday.
Teams
Rochdale
Lee,Ramsden,Kennedy,McArdle,Stanton,Muirhead,Jones,Perkins,Rundle,
Thorpe, Higginbotham
Subs
LeFondre, Dagnall, Button, Basham, Holness
Bradford City
Loach, Starosta, Heckingbottom, Weatherall, Bower, Johnson, Conlon, Thorne, Colbeck, Penford, Nix
Subs
Evans, Rhodes, Moncur, Williams, Medley
Referee A Haines
Attendance 3811
