Andrew Lloyd Williams reports from Dean Court
Bournemouth started with top scorer Brett Pitman playing on the left wing with Connell and Fletcher upfront. The front pairing combined well in the opening exchanges to try and forge out a chance. Rochdale also started brightly, with a mis-hit Kennedy 30-yarder spelling out their intentions. Indeed it was the visitors who had the first shot on target with twenty minutes gone when Dagnell hit a low, hard shot that Jalal gathered down to his left hand side. Minutes later The Rochdale number nine ran past Garry and flashed a shot past the far post. Dale were obviously well-prepared for the physical presence of Steve Fletcher, with the equally-large Stanton doing his best to block the big man's progress.
After 25 minutes, Bournemouth were indebted to their goalkeeper for keeping them on level terms. Shwan Jalal pulled off a brilliant save after Whaley sent a shot heading for the top right hand corner of the goal. Finally the Cherries had their first effort of the game- Pitman, finding himself under pressure and with not many options, looped the ball over the top of the goal from the edge of the box. Rochdale were suffering communication problems between their defence and goalkeeper, who was signed on an emergency loan the day before the match.
Pitman nearly opened the scoring on the half hour mark after Feeney beat Kennedy to cross. The Channel-Islander's thumping volley was parried away by Lillis. The loan goalkeeper was again called into action by Pitman five minutes before half time when he pushed a 30-yard free kick round his left-hand post. As the home side applied some pressure, Fletcher and Pearce both headed narrowly over from corners. Pearce headed the ball into the net just before the break but as he wheeled away in celebration, the goal was ruled out for offside. Hollands nearly benefited when Lillis charged out of his box and headed clear, but the keeper sprinted back to his line to gather the Bournemouth captain's shot. Rochdale won their fifth corner of the game thanks to some great passing football. Then just before half time their pressure paid off when the pacy Dagnell was put through a gap in the Cherries' defence by O'Grady and smashed his ninth goal of the season past the despairing dive of Jalal.
Bournemouth started the second half with Pitman, Connell and Cummings peppering the penalty area with crosses but without a bit of cutting edge. Rochdale looked less dangerous than in the first half as Whaley appeared to tire whilst Garry and Pearce made some strong interventions. Rochdale were camped in their own half with Bournemouth pushing strongly for an equaliser. Robinson was left back on his own defending like an American football quarter-back lumping passes forward. This hard work counted for nothing when O'Grady doubled the visitor's lead against the run of play after sixty three minutes. Dagnell showed great skill to beat Bradbury and Garry to square the ball for the striker who placed his shot past Jalal who had no chance.
Within ten minutes Rochdale knocked the stuffing out of Bournemouth and doubled their lead to four-nil. Simon Whaley struck after 69 minutes after he was allowed to waltz through a crowd of Cherries players and placed a shot underneath Jalal. Two minutes later O'Grady made it four nil when Dagnell broke through down the left hand side and centred for the unmarked frontman who made no mistake from 6 yards. The players looked shell-shocked as they had conceded a deluge of goals after doing little wrong. Rochdale were playing an impressive brand of one-touch football that made them hard to dispossess.
The burly Nathan Stanton was dismissed in the last ten minutes for a horror lunge on Bartley. His boss Eddie Howe will have been relieved to see the midfielder get back to his feet. As the home side tried to restore some pride, Connell had a 25-yard drive comfortably held by Levitt. To demonstrate the fact that they deserved something from the game, Garry headed a cross into a defender then had a shot blocked before Levitt was forced down to his right to stop a powerful Lee Bradbury effort. The referee's whistle couldn't go quickly enough for Bournemouth as they look to put today's result behind them.
Today's match attendance was 6,378.
Goals:
AFC Bournemouth:
Rochdale: (45 minutes) Dagnell, (65 minutes) O'Grady, (69 minutes) Whaley, (72 minutes) O'Grady
Yellow Cards:
AFC Bournemouth: (65 minutes) Garry, (81 minutes) Cummings
Rochdale: (35 minutes) Kennedy, (66 minutes) Whaley
Red Cards:
AFC Bournemouth:
Rochdale: (81 minutes) Stanton
Substitutions:
AFC Bournemouth: (69 minutes) Bartley for Fletcher
Rochdale:( 75 minutes) Rundle for O'Grady, (82 minutes) Honless for Dagnell
Here are today's teams
AFC Bournemouth
1 Shwan Jalal
11 Liam Feeney
8 Anton Robinson
3 Ryan Garry
10 Alan Connell
14 Danny Hollands (Captain)
28 Warren Cummings
33 Steve Fletcher
9 Brett Pitman
5 Jason Pearce
23 Lee Bradbury
Substitutes: 19 Jeff Goulding, 6 Marvin Bartley, 17 Josh McQuoid, 30 Dan Thomas
Rochdale
29 Josh Lillis
23 Rory McArdale
3 Tom Kennedy
4 Nathan Stanton
26 Craig Dawson
15 Joe Thompson
7 Jason Kennedy (Captain)
12 Dale Stevens
14 Simon Whaley
19 Chris O'Grady
9 Chris Dagnell
Substitutes: 13 Danny Taberner, 31 Marcus Holness, 28 Matt Flynn, 16 Marcus Magna, 10 Scott Spencer, 18 Kallum Higginbotham, 11 Adam Rundle.
