A second half horror show saw Yeovil Town crumble to a their joint heaviest defeat of the season as they capitulated at the hands of Rochdale at Spotland.

Having weathered an early storm of pressure from the home side, the Glovers could even have taken the lead when Ciaran McGuckin forced a fine out of Sam Waller and probably deserved to go in level at the break.

But after an error from goalkeeper Ollie Wright gifted Rochdale the lead four minutes after the break, it went from bad to worse for the visitors. Wright conceded a penalty for a foul on Kairo Mitchell eight minutes later which the striker converted before another defensive blunder gifted Leon Ayinde the third on 64 minutes.

Dale lifted their foot off the gas after that but found just enough for Jake Burger to add a fourth in second half injury time to send the travelling supporters back on the 240-mile trip back to Somerset thoroughly dejected.

Here’s how Dave saw it from the away end at Spotland…..


First half

The game started with both teams trying to avoid the huge square of new turf laid down in the middle of the pitch and a mud-sand hybrid in both corners of the end which Yeovil were attacking in the first half which offered the potential of being a serious risk of injury.
 
A fifth minute scramble inside the box which was hacked away by Ciaran McGuckin after a melee of bodies and a 12th-minute free-kick – featuring a yellow card for Finn Cousin-Dawson – which was has eventually headed over by Kairo Mitchell for Rochdale was as near to action as the opening 15 minutes offered.
 
On 16 minutes, Devante Rodney put a ball over the bar after good play down the left by Ayinde before the striker stroked another one harmlessly in to the arms of Ollie Wright. But the opening exchanges were almost entirely one way traffic against a Rochdale side happy to keep probing at the Yeovil back line.
 
On 26 minutes, one of our only midfield players, Jacob Maddox, who had gone down with an injury twice was replaced by Josh Sims.
 
Looking at the state of their pitch, there’s not been much sunshine in Rochdale lately – but there was plenty in the first half.
 
It took until the last 15 minutes for Yeovil to begin to come back in to the game and on 34 minutes McGurk and Wilson combined well for the latter to lift a shot over the bar when he would have been better feeding the Swansea City youngster for a chance on goal.
 
But undoubtedly Yeovil’s best chance of the first half fell to McGuckin after 39 minutes. Good pressure by McGurk and Wilson saw the ball break to the Rotherham United loanee whose effort looked to be going in the top corner only for Dale keeper Sam Waller to turn it over for a corner.
 
At the other end Ollie Wright was in action after 43 minutes after Charlie Cooper’s foul – leading to a booking for the midfielder and a two-match ban – gave Rodney an opportunity to get his effort on target only to be denied by the on loan Southampton keeper.
 

Half time: Rochdale 0 Yeovil Town 0


Second half

The first chance of the second half led to the first goal of the game and from an error from Ollie Wright. He came to punch a corner from East and it comes off the back of Alex Whittle and cannons in to the net. I think there’s a flick from Devante RODNEY before Wright punches it, but that looks like an own goal to me. A disastrous way to start the second half.
 
 

A complete communication break down between Wright and Cousin-Dawson saw Mitchell sneak in and go down under pressure from the keeper. Penalty. Kairo MITCHELL put the ball in the far corner with 57 minutes played. It’s gone from bad to even worse.

Kairo Mitchell strokes home the penalty.
 
Rochdale are running riot and our team looks like they have never met each other – an excuse which only new signing Kyrell Wilson can offer as any kind of defence. Charlie Cooper lucky not to pick up a second yellow card for a foul on the edge of his box.
 
On 61 minutes, Yeovil made three substitutions with Morgan Williams, Lewys Twamley and Frank Nouble coming on in place of Dom Bernard, Alex Whittle and Sean McGurk.
 
Three minutes after the changes and it is 3-0. The third goal was another defensive calamity, a ball from Tobi Adebayo-Rowling was completely missed inside the box by Cousin-Dawson and lands to Leon AYINDE who could not miss from inside the six yard box. 
 
It could have been worse on 68 minutes when a corner was nodded on by Liam Hogan who came back off the bar and away.  The amount of times that Rochdale cut us open down the right side with complete ease, even though that side of the the pitch is basically a swamp.
 
McGuckin has an effort well-saved by Waller before Cooper is replaced by Kofi Shaw with 68 minutes played, presumably as much to protect him from a second yellow card as much as anything else. Mercifully, Rochdale make a raft of changes with just over ten minutes remaining and seem to have taken their foot off the gas.
 
That said, Wright makes a good save from substitute evergreen striker Ian Henderson with eight minutes remaining and then with four minutes of second half stoppage time played, it’s four. A shot from substitute Jili Buyabu is saved by Wright, falls to Henderson who is denied by a last ditch tackle and Jake BURGER is on hand to smash it home from close range.
 
The final whistle is met by the sound of boos from the away end and quite rightly. That was a performance completely lacking in spirit from Yeovil and there can be no defence for it.
 

Full time: Rochdale 4 Yeovil Town 0


Match Details

Venue: Spotland
Date: Saturday 25th January- 3pm kick-off 

Competition: National League Premier Division

Scorers: Devante Rodney 49 (0-1), Kairo Mitchell 57 (0-2), Leon Ayinde 64 (0-3), Jake Burger 90+4 (0-4)

Pitch: Looked like the type of carpet your Dad puts down in his garage, but inside of oil stains there were huge muddy patches
Conditions: Brilliant sunshine

Attendance: 2,463 

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Finn Cousin-Dawson 10, Charlie Cooper 41, Dom Bernard 41
Rochdale: 
 Sam Beckwith 90

Referee: Scott Oldham

Yeovil Town (3-4-2-1)

 

Substitutes: Josh Sims (for Jacob Maddox, 26), Lewys Twamley (for Dom Bernard, 61), Morgan Williams (for Sean McGurk, 61), Frank Nouble (for Alex Whittle, 65), Kofi Shaw (for Charlie Cooper, 69), Harvey Greenslade (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Rochdale: Sam Waller, Jid Okeke (for Jili Buyabu, 77), Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, Liam Hogan, Kyron Gordon, Sam Beckwith, Leon Ayinde (for Jake Burger, 77), Ryan East (for Charlie Weston, 87), Harvey Gilmour, Kairo Mitchell (for Connor McBride, 77), Devante Rodney (for Devante Rodney, 73).

Substitutes (not used):  Kyle Ferguson, Tarryn Allarakhia.

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Michael Pearson.
21 days ago

Watching Super Rochdale putting on a show. Up the Dale.

SheFellOver
21 days ago

Zero shots on goal! That’s can’t have been fun. Still, moved off the bottom of the table – the disciplinary table!

Paul
21 days ago

Your over-exaggeration about the pitch is laughable. Same for both teams and it was nothing like a swamp, it’s just devoid of grass in certain small areas, whereas Yeovil were devoid of ideas, devoid of fight and devoid of effort. For the manager to later claim that ‘we dominated possession’ is devoid of the truth. Be thankful it wasn’t 7 or 8 as it could so easily have been.

Benji
20 days ago
Reply to  Paul

What’s laughable is Rochdale fans, who I’m assuming are actual ‘adults’, setting up an account on a Yeovil news site to rub salt into wounds. Your pitch was/is shite, we were/are shite.

Up The Dale
21 days ago

This has cheered me up on my long trip back to Wiltshire as your report is pretty accurate apart from the pitch bit ( and we Dale know all about a bad pitch!!). Thought Yeovil players looked a bit off the pace fitness wise unlike down at your place, but that does seem a long time ago.

SheFellOver
20 days ago

Don’t think the kick-off was 7.30pm.

Last edited 20 days ago by SheFellOver