Rochdale make the trip to Vale Park this weekend as we aim to secure another three points following our victorious visit to table toppers Forest Green Rovers. With the game just a day away, we look back at times we hosted the Dale.
Past Five encounters with Rochdale: LLWWL
Our last visit from the Dale:
Pre-season, Vale Park, Saturday 29th August 2020: Port Vale 2-1 Rochdale
Tom Conlon’s brace from the penalty spot helped secure a 2-1 victory for Vale in our final fixture of the 2020/21 pre-season.
John Askey was pleased with the level of performance from his side against a Rochdale team who had won all of their pre-season fixtures before they faced the Valiants.
Rochdale’s first chance of the game came as midfielder Alex Newby tried to curl a ball into the top corner of Dino Visser’s net, only for Legge to get his head in the way and clear for a corner.
The best chance of the game to that point followed, with Visser pulling off a superb save to deny Fabio Tavares’ angled strike from inside the box, to prevent the ball flying into the top corner.
Visser was on hand again to deny Tavares in sensational style after 25 minutes, when Alex Newby’s cut-back was met by the Dale striker from six-yards out, only for Visser to lunge and tip the ball past the post.
The visitors had a golden opportunity to open the scoring with 32 minutes on the clock, after Matthew Done was able to round Visser, but Zak Mills was on hand clear the ball off the line.
But with twenty seconds until half-time Devante Rodney was brought down in the box, and the referee awarded a penalty to the Valiants.
Tom Conlon stepped up and placed the ball in the bottom right-corner, with Bazunu diving in the opposite direction to give the Valiants a half-time lead.
Just ten minutes into the second-half, the Valiants were awarded another penalty after Jim McNulty was caught tugging Shaun Brisley’s shirt in the box.
Conlon stepped up to take his second penalty of the day, and produced the same result as last time, slotting the ball into the bottom-left corner to score his and the Vale’s second goal of the game.
Conlon almost made it a hat-trick two minutes later, when his sumptuous curling effort from outside the box was well tipped over by Bazunu in the Dale goal.
After 65 minutes, it was Rochdale who found themselves a way back into the game, after Kwando Baah fell over in the box under a challenge from Luke Joyce, with Aaron Morley on hand to convert the resulting penalty for the visitors, to bring the game back to 2-1.
Half-time substitute David Amoo almost made the win safe for the Valiants after 82 minutes, when his header from Worrall’s cross was superbly tipped onto the post by Jay Lynch.
With four minutes remaining, Mills was on hand to clear off the line for the second time in the game, stopping Alex Newby’s driven strike from hitting the back of the net.
And that proved to be the last major action of the game as Vale secured the victory to send them into the competitive season with confidence.
Port Vale: Visser, Mills, Legge (Smith 61’), Brisley, Fitzpatrick (Crookes 71’), Whitehead, Burgess (Joyce 45’), Conlon (Trickett-Smith 75’), Worrall, Rodney (Pope 61’), Robinson (Amoo 45’).
Rochdale: Bazunu (Lynch 61’), McLaughlin, McNulty, O’Connell (McShane 61’), Keohane, Ryan (Morley 61’), Lund Newby, Dooley, Done (Baah 61’), Tavares.
Classic Encounter:
League One, Vale Park, Saturday 23rd April 2016: Port Vale 4-1 Rochdale
A lively start saw Dale's Donal McDermott force a fine save from Jak Alnwick at one end before Sam Foley's effort was cleared off the line by Ashley Eastham at the other.
However, there was little else to shout about before Theo Robinson, scored Vale's 6,000th league goal in the 37th minute.
JJ Hooper challenged two Rochdale defenders in the air and the ball ran into the path of Robinson, who curled a splendid right-foot finish into the top left-hand corner of Josh Lillis' net from 14 yards.
Vale ran Rochdale ragged for the remainder of the first half, with Hooper having one effort ruled out for a tight offside call and forcing a fine save from Lillis before Vale won a 45th minute penalty.
Jimmy McNulty upended Sam Foley and Michael O'Connor drove the spot-kick low into the centre of the net as Lillis dived to his right.
Vale added a third less than two minutes into the second half following a calamitous back-pass by Joe Rafferty, which allowed Hooper to race through unchallenged and place a cool right-foot finish low inside the left-hand post.
Former Vale striker Calvin Andrew reduced the deficit in the 51st minute when he collected a pass from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing to fire an unstoppable left-foot shot into the top right-hand corner of Alnwick's net from the right edge of the penalty area.
But a bad day for Rochdale and a dreadful one for Rafferty was complete in the 77th minute when the full-back needlessly pushed Remie Streete in the back and O'Connor made no mistake with his second penalty of the afternoon as Vale romped to the three points.
Port Vale – Alnwick, Purkiss, Streete, Duffy, McGivern, Dickinson, Brown, O’Connor, Foley (Kelly 82), Hooper, Robinson (Turner 90)
Subs not used – Birchall, Yates, Moore, Campion, Boot
Rochdale – Lillis, Rafferty, Lancashire, Eastham, McNulty, Rose, Camps (Andrews 46), Allen, Mendez-Laing, Bunney (Henderson 46), McDermott (Holt 46)
Subs not used – Vincenti, Collis, Cannon, Syers
Attendance: 4,380