Back to the bad old days for Dale

JUST when it appeared Rochdale had turned a corner under new boss Chris Beech they produce a performance as poor as any witnessed so far in what has been a season of struggle.

Having raised hopes with a display against Preston on Monday which warranted more than the single point yielded, they fell flat on their faces against Hartlepool at Victoria Park with a virtual no-show in the 2-0 defeat.

The home side, without a win in their previous nine fixtures on their own turf, dominated the first half and saw Peter Kurucz save Gary Liddle’s diving header and Andy Monkhouse’s effort cleared off the line by Stephen Darby.

Fortunate to be on level terms by the break in the npower League One clash, Dale showed some signs of improvement after the interval only to ship a soft headed goal from James Brown in the 74th minute. Luke James then struck a swerving 25-yard volley minutes later to send Dale home empty-handed.

“It wasn’t a great game, both teams struggled to get going though I felt Hartlepool did a little bit more than us in terms of getting the ball forward quickly,” said Beech.

“We didn’t do what we wanted to do. We told the lads at half time and started to play better in the second half, but they conceded a really poor, schoolboy-error type goal which changed the game and put Hartlepool in the ascendancy.

“Up to that moment in the second half we had the edge and we felt we were going to break the deadlock — but then we concede a goal like that and it’s not acceptable.

“We didn’t do what we set out to do and that has happened too many times this season — hence why I am in the dugout.

“It’s the first time it has happened in three weeks since I took over. I’m not going to rant and rave at them because they know it’s not acceptable and they know what we’ve done in the last three weeks.

“It didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but as footballers we taste defeat quite a lot but there is a pride and feeling whenever it happens to you — it’s all about the response.

“Everybody gets beaten, it how you respond to that defeat that defines you. So I am looking for that response in training next week.”

Hartlepool: Flinders, Austin, Collins, Hartley, Horwood, Murray (Brown, 69), Liddle, Baldwin, Monkhouse, Sweeney, James (Humphreys, 90). Subs not used: Rafferty, Boyd, Solano

Rochdale: Kurucz, Darby (Tutte, 81), Holden, Jordan, Widdowson, Adams (Akpa Akpro, 77), Jones, Kennedy, Bogdanovic, Ball (Grimes, 77), Ormerod. Subs not used: Edwards, Holness

Referee: J Adcock. Attendance: 4,663