Manchester City 2 Rochdale1

An 85th minute Ian Daly goal denied a Dale a deserved share of the spoils at the Regional Athletics Centre.

             

The visitors started the better with Joe Thompson being denied by keeper Greg Hartley and Raphale Evans heading wide from close range but went behind against the run of play on 23 minutes when a City break resulted in the impressive Robert Mak out pacing Lee Crooks and firing home. Thompson was twice denied by the City keeper before the break, the second time when he should have done better finding himself one on one.

Dale equalised on 65 minutes when triallist midfielder Jake Richardson who was quietly effective throughout burst through the middle and rifled home from the edge of the penalty area.

Though Dale enjoyed the bulk of the 2nd half possession James Spencer made 3 smart stops to keep out Mak, Daly and Angelos Tsiakis but was powerless late on when having made a brilliant save to deny Daly he could only watch as the big striker bundled home the rebound.

Teams
City: Hartley, Paldan (Morris 78), Ramsey, Boyata, Browm, Tutte, Mak, Tsiakis, Daly, Tchuimeni (Weiss 72) Poole
sub nu Johannsen, Chantler,McDermott
Dale: Spencer, Holness Evans (Bowyer 61) D'Laryea, Crooks, Richardson, Muirhead, Doolan, Wharton (Sheriff 70) Buckley, Thompson
Sub nu Flitcroft, Lambert, Farrell