Rochdale v County: Match Thread, Take 2 (21/02/2023)

Similarities to the previous Tuesday-post-Saturday game, with tired legs and minds on show and responsible for the far-below-best performance. Thankfully, once again, we had that bit of quality when it mattered - Hussey threading in a ball which was wonderfully taken on by Hippolyte past the defender leading to a desperate pull to recover the situation. Collar dispatched the penalty without issue.

The second came shortly after. We lost our way a little with possession and ended up going back to Ben, who launched it. Wootton flicked on and Collar ran onto it down our right, striking it from the edge of the area and at an angle that favoured the 'keeper. Somehow the 'keeper let it right through him.

As he did every game for us, Lloyd was to have a say in proceedings. From winning FKs to getting in the ref's ear, he had already twice attempted to repeat his Brackley short corner routine when he leathered it and it deflected onto the woodwork - something Rodney had hit it before from distance, as had Camps for us. When we messed up defending a diagonal and they overloaded us on our right, Lloyd's well-struck shot forced Ben to tip around for a corner. And from that corner Lloyd put it where Palmer would have always been, zonally heading away from in front of Ben. But we seemed to lack such presence and a few half-hearted jumps weren't enough to stop the ball finding our net. A very poor concession but I can't say they didn't deserve a goal by that point.

In the end, the game fizzled into FKs and not much else. The 3 points were what mattered to back up an excellent win against Stevenage and to keep us climbing that table, and we got them.