Dale put in a superb display against high-flying Rotherham United to emerge victorious, winning 3-1 at the Crown Oil Arena on Saturday.
A brace from Ian Henderson followed by Matty Lund’s first goal since re-joining the club, helped Dale on their way to a well deserved three points.
Henderson’s goals take his tally for the Club to 126, three behind Reg Jenkins who is Dale’s all-time top scorer.
Brian Barry-Murphy made two changes from the side that faced Portsmouth, with Eoghan O’Connell and Jimmy Keohane coming in for Jim McNulty and Rhys Norrington-Davies. Ollie Rathbone and Tyler Smith were both fit enough for a place on the bench.
The first attempt at goal came from the away side, with Curtis Tilt firing well over from the edge of the area.
Freddie Ladapo picked up a loose ball before firing towards goal, but his shot was well held by Sánchez.
Dale went close when Henderson broke the offside trap before cutting the ball back for Aaron Wilbraham whose side footed effort was blocked on the line by a Rotherham defender, before Matt Crooks skewed a shot that went high and wide of the Dale goal.
Dale opened the scoring when Aaron Morley’s inch-perfect pass found Henderson who stabbed the ball past Daniel Iversen in the Millers’ goal.
Rotherham responded and thought they’d scored an equaliser when they had the ball in the net, but it was ruled out for offside. Ben Wiles’ header was heading for the bottom corner but Michael Smith’s touch from on the goal-line saw the goal chalked off.
Into the second half, Morley and Henderson combined once more with the latter seeing his header saved by Iversen at point blank range.
A well worked Dale corner saw Callum Camps chip a ball to the back post, which was met by Eoghan O’Connell, but his header was held by Iversen.
Henderson got his second when Lund won the ball back high up the pitch and drove forward before slotting Henderson in, who made no mistake in firing past Iversen.
Lund got on the scoresheet minutes later after he latched onto Camps’ lofted pass, before lobbing the ball exquisitely over the onrushing Iversen.
Jamie Lindsay pulled a goal back for the visitors in stoppage time with a neat flick past Sánchez, but it wasn’t enough, and Dale held out for all three points.
Barry-Murphy’s men are next in action on the 17th of March, hosting Tranmere Rovers at the Crown Oil Arena with kick-off at 19:45pm.
Tickets for that game are available to purchase HERE.