When Rochdale visited the J. Davidson Stadium on Saturday, there was an unusual sight: a large contingent of His Majesty’s police officers. Typically, the sole type of ground police are stewards.
In the image on the right, four officers watch over Alex Newby as he places the ball in the corner flag area near the location where the Rochdale supporters were kept.
There were a dozen or more additional police officers outside the stadium, and their cars were there as well.
Nearly 900 away fans were well-behaved during the game, as far as could be seen from the main stand. The use of force was presumably predicated on police intelligence.
After losing 3-0 at Altrincham, Rochdale stated that “Jimmy McNulty thought Dale played better on Saturday than the score line indicated…
McNulty declared, “I believe Altrincham deserved to win.” We’ve already given them two 3-0 score lines. To be honest, I felt they should have scored that evening and we didn’t deserve to defeat them 3-0 at home. After that game, Phil Parkinson said something similar, and I’d be shocked if he didn’t say the same thing after tonight.
“Altrincham was more clinical than we were, but that’s about all I would say.” We were in the game, we had numerous opportunities and shots, and we frequently avoided their goal.
“If I removed my Rochdale hat and observed the game as a neutral, I would just say the team in red had quality when they were in the box, and the team in blue didn’t. But I know my guys have got quality and, on another day, we score.'”.
At the end, Altrincham’s victory was rather easy as they overturned their previous season 3-0 loss at Spotland.
Rochdale opened the match well ahead of Altrincham, who started to show their mettle after the first fifteen minutes on a ground that had been extensively sanded in various areas. In the 44th minute, Amaluzor scored the rebound after the keeper parried a nice effort from Eddy Jones on the left, giving the home team the lead.
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