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Dale buzz to claim away win over The Bees

Richard Partington
1/ 4/2008

ROCHDALE’s march towards the play-offs gathered momentum on Saturday with a hard-fought away win at Brentford where former Bees’ striker Lee Thorpe came off the bench to score the decisive goal.

Adam Rundle, added a second in time added on, but it was Thorpe’s 77th minute header which finally broke the deadlock in a closely contested affair at Griffin Park.

Going into last night’s home match against Bradford City just one point behind seventh-placed Chesterfield, with three games in hand, Dale boss Keith Hill said his players have the drive, talent and ambition to finish in a coveted play-off position come the end of the season.

"We are in a position to really achieve this season. We are not going to apply any pressure to the players, but they are ambitious and they do see the league table like anybody else and realise what can develop out of winning matches," said Hill.

"They are very capable of winning these matches, and all they have to do is apply themselves in the right manner, because football-wise they are as good a squad as I’ve worked with, as a player or manager, with respect to the league we are in."

With Brentford billing the encounter as a ‘six-pointer’ in their pursuit of the play-offs, Rochdale were forced to dig deep and scrap it out.

"You’ve got to win those type of games by being a bit ugly, because it was a fight," said Hill.

"It was well into the second half, when we made our substitutions to good effect again, that we won it, and it is about a squad of players who want to achieve and have that ambition, drive and fighting desire to achieve. We saw all those qualities on Saturday."

Hill said there was almost an inevitability about Thorpe scoring on his return to Griffin Park.

"It seems to happen on a regular basis, and I was a bit surprised that Reuben Reid didn’t come on, with that in mind. It was pleasing for Thorpey to get his first goal for us, and what a goal it was following a great cross from Simon Ramsden. The second goal was a worthy one in terms of our approach play. I know Brentford were pushing for an equaliser and left the back door open, but we got ourselves into a position where we could afford that luxury with the way we defended and the fact we are good at counter-attacking teams.

"Nathan Stanton and Rory McArdle were immense, and they had to be because Brentford threw a lot at us. They played a lot of direct football towards the end, so everyone had to stand up and be counted and they all did that. "