Rochdale secured three valuable points on Tuesday night with a well-deserved 2-1 win over Swindon Town at the Crown Oil Arena.
Goals from Jimmy Keohane and Conor Grant ensured victory for Dale against the Robins.
Keohane broke the deadlock after just 12 minutes, superbly finding the top corner, before Grant doubled Dale’s advantage in the 65th minute, finishing from close range after well-worked move forward.
Jordon Garrick netted with a couple of minutes left to play, to half the deficit.
There were three changes to the side that lined-up against Fleetwood Town on Saturday, as Paul McShane, Aaron Morley and Stephen Dooley replaced Haydon Roberts, Conor Shaughnessy and Kwadwo Baah. There was a welcome return from injury for Matthew Lund, who was named on the bench.
Swindon had the first shot on goal, with Hallum Hope curling an effort narrowly over the bar early on, before Scott Twine saw his a long-range strike deflected past the post.
But it was Dale who opened the scoring on 12 minutes after Keohane superbly finished off a well-worked move.
Ryan McLaughlin got down the right and sent a cross into the area which fell kindly for Keohane, whose shot looked destined for the back of the net as soon as it left his boot. The 30-year-old curled his effort into the top far corner and in off the inside of the post, leaving Lee Camp with no chance of a save.
Midway through the half Morley had a shot held by the Robins stopper.
Shortly before the half hour mark, Jay Lynch denied the visitors with a brilliant save. The goalkeeper kept out Jack Payne’s shot with an outstretched leg, after coming flying out of his goal to get equal to it. Lynch was quickly back on his feet to hold a follow up shot from the edge of the area.
Up the other end and Ollie Rathbone was in on goal soon after, as he got through one-on-one with ‘keeper, only to see his low shot kept out by the legs of Camp.
While, Twine’s dipping free-kick caused problems for Lynch, who was forced to come and parry it away as far as Gabriel Osho, who bravely came powering in to head away the danger from inside the six-yard box.
Before the half was out, Beesley had shot parried away by Camp, after being played in by Morley.
HT | ROCHDALE 1-0 SWINDON TOWN
Four minutes after the restart, Rochdale had the ball in the back of the net but it was ruled out for offside. Dooley had a low effort parried away by Camp, which bounced up to Beesley who nodded home from an offside position.
Soon after, the visitors had a couple of efforts on goal as Lynch got down to get behind a low powerful Twine shot, before Brett Pitman struck over from the edge of the area.
Rochdale went on to double their advantage soon after the hour.
Rathbone broke away before squaring to Beesley who in turn laid the ball off to Dooley. He drove goalwards before getting to the byline and pulling the it back for Beesley, whose shot was parried by Camp straight into the path of Grant. The Irishman turned the ball over the line from close range, to net his first goal for the club.
During the final exchanges Dale looked likely to add a third as they continued to cause problems for the Robins, however it was the visitors who pulled a goal back with two minutes remaining, to ensure a nervy finish to the game at the Crown Oil Arena.
Beesley countered quickly down the right and found Rathbone who set up Keohane, but he couldn’t keep his curling effort down and it rose over the bar.
Osho then forced Camp down to his left to keep out a low powerful drive, before Rathbone sent a dipping effort narrowly wide of the far post.
Swindon’s halved the deficit in the 88th, when a Garrick turned home Payne’s cross from the left from close range.
As the game entered stoppage time, there were a couple of Dale substations in quick success as Jim McNulty firstly replaced McLaughlin, before Grant made way for Conor Shaughnessy.
And Dale saw the game out to secure three valuable points.
FT | ROCHDALE 2-1 SWINDON TOWN