Rochdale 0, Athletic 0: Show of character

Photo: Tom Pickles

COOL AS YOU LIKE: Danny Whitaker dispatches a spot-kick in the shoot-out decider against local rivals Rochdale.

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ROCHDALE 0, ATHLETIC 0

(after extra time, Athletic won 4-1 on penalties)

IF Athletic had lost at Rochdale last night, Lee Hughes would have been cast as the man whose first-half penalty miss played the biggest part in their downfall.

Instead, more than two hours later, Hughes slammed home the final kick of a shoot-out to send his 10-man team into the Carling Cup second round.

Athletic did well to get so far without conceding a goal after striker Craig Davies was sent off late in the first half for a senseless act of violent conduct.

They were commendably solid against a useful League Two outfit and ultimately kept their heads better than Rochdale when it came to settling things from the spot.

All four of Athletic’s takers — Neal Eardley, Chris Taylor, Danny Whitaker and Hughes — despatched clinical, emphatic penalties.

Tom Kennedy scored for Rochdale, but then Chris Dagnall blazed over the bar and Adam Le Fondre was denied by ’keeper Mark Crossley, who has made a habit of saving penalties throughout his career.

In a tie of few chances, the one big negative for Athletic was to see Davies dismissed for thrusting his head towards Rory McArdle in an incident which shouldn’t have involved him.

Kennedy, the Rochdale left-back, was on the ground claiming to have been caught very late by Hughes. And, though most people from Athletic thought Kennedy was faking it, Davies went too far in the melee which followed.

Athletic manager John Sheridan was relieved to squeeze through an awkward test in difficult circumstances, explaining: “It was a great effort from the 10 men, plus the subs who came on.

“I didn’t really want extra time, but I’m chuffed with the attitude and commitment because they all worked very hard for each other.

“I’m just glad to be in the next round, especially when we had such great away support, but we had to do it the hard way and that’s the second time we’ve shown a lot of character.

“We beat Millwall from 3-1 down on Saturday and now we’ve got past a good Rochdale team even though we spent most of the game with 10 men. It shows there’s a good group of lads at the club.”

The match was preceded by tributes to former Athletic and Rochdale favourite Ernie Cooksey, and rarely can 5,786 supporters — more than half of them from Oldham — have produced such a rapturous response to a minute’s applause.

It was a moving celebration of a man who touched so many people both before and after his death. Both sets of fans did themselves proud.

Once the action was under way, Athletic should have breezed into a sixth-minute lead from Eardley’s excellent right-wing cross.

The unmarked Davies headed straight at ’keeper Sam Russell from close range, beginning a night he will want to forget.

There was a pleasingly open first half, with Taylor — who had a good game at left-back — conjuring up two decent efforts before Deane Smalley glanced off target.

Smalley’s pace was troubling for Rochdale, who conceded a penalty after 23 minutes when McArdle diced with danger by dangling out a leg inside the area.

Smalley was clearly tripped and, with Andy Liddell left out of the starting XI, Hughes took on responsibilities from the spot.

His kick was powerfully struck, but Russell plunged away to the right and denied Hughes a goal on his first start since January.

Next it was Rochdale’s turn for a spell in charge as Jon Shaw’s header deflected wide and Kennedy stretched Crossley with a 20-yard free-kick.

Davies saw red in the final minute of the half, although Sheridan stayed positive with a 4-3-2 system which contained attacking options in midfield.

Athletic were pressed on to the back foot as Gary Jones started trying his luck from distance and Dagnall was thwarted by Crossley before aiming his next chance — perhaps Rochdale’s best of the night — too close to the ’keeper.

Once the visitors settled into their formation, however, they were comfortable in defence and only Le Fondre, who forced an agile save, got anywhere near breaking them down within 90 minutes.

Extra time was even quieter, almost feeling like a formality before two local rivals went head to head on penalties.

Eardley’s 25-yard blast gave Russell some employment, while Lewis Alessandra was inches away from reaching a Hughes cross, but Rochdale offered little.

The only thing more inevitable than a shoot-out was that Athletic would send on their specialist, Liddell, which duly occurred with less than a minute to go.

As it happened he wasn’t needed — and nor was the shooting prowess of Crossley, who was down to take penalty number six for Athletic.

Pictures by TOM PICKLES