Championship? You're having a laugh! was the cry from the Sandy Lane as Dale knocked out Stoke City to progress to round two of the Carling Cup. Match report online now.

That'll ding dang do for me!  A quite fantastic performance from Rochdale saw them progress to round two of the Carling Cup after a penalties victory over Championship side Stoke City and to be fair, they were lucky to even get to penalties so justice was served result wise.

The poor performance and result at Peterborough on Saturday became a very distant memory and we saw a little bit of what a lot of us had hoped for since the end of last season.  A good attacking Dale side who will show absolutely no fear.

I'll be the first to admit, I expected us to get ram-rodded against Stoke and never for one minute thought we'd be in with a chance of getting into round two to possibly face the likes of Manchester City, Newcastle, Aston Villa or Middlesbrough but a fine but my confidence increased a little when I was informed in the pub that Nathan D'Laryea was in for Lee Crooks while Glenn Murray returned to the starting lineup replacing Alfie.  Other than that the team was the same with Spencer in net, a back four of Ramsden, D'Laryea, McArdle and Kennedy, Muirhead, Perkins, Jones and Rundle in midfield with Dagnall and Murray up top.  On the bench were Rigby, Crooks, Prendergast, Thompson and Le Fondre.

Dale got off to an awful start though and found themselves behind after about five minutes and it was all too easy as well.  A belting ball in from out wide was superbly headed in by Ryan Shawcross (on loan from Man United) who had beaten Rory McArdle to the ball and Spencer had no chance.

At this point I sort of switched off and chatted away to mates in the Sandy while hoping the floodgates didn't open!

Quite the opposite happened as from that moment on, we absolutely battered them.  We made them look two divisions below us as opposed to how it actually is and we thought we were in with a shout of getting back into it.

Don't get me wrong, Stoke looked very dangerous at set pieces but whenever we attacked, we caused them trouble and knackered them out really with Muirhead and Rundle getting forward as often as possible and running at their full backs.  We also looked a lot more balanced up front with Murray there and looked more like scoring.

Dale went into the half time break 1-0 down but looking very capable of turning it around.

We came out even better in the second half and took the game to Stoke. 

Adam Rundle rattled the post after getting on the end of a quality Glenn Murray pass and the ball bounced clear.

Adam Le Fondre came on for Chris Dagnall who had just started to look very dangerous and Alfie went close with a curling free kick mid way through the second half .

Jon Parkin had been verbally assaulted by the Dale crowd and DJ Dave Sweetmore even chipped in with his first half time song which just happened to be Morrissey's "You're the one for me fatty" which amused me no end!  He was subbed early in the second half and went off to a chorus of "You're going off cause you're fat!

With quarter of an hour of normal time to go, Rory Prendergast replaced a very tired Adam Rundle and I my confidence completely shut down.  Prendergast showed the worst couple of touches imaginably not long after coming on but after that, he suddenly turned into Ryan Giggs and became a bit ace!

There were about seven minutes of normal time left when we finally got a deserved equaliser.  A fantastic link up between Murray and Perkins saw Perkins play the ball into Murray, Murray flicking the ball with an awesome little back heel into the path of Perkins who had continued his run and then he smashed it past Hoult in the Stoke goal to spark awesome celebrations for the home fans.

The full time whistle went and it was to be another thirty minutes for extra time but we had the momentum and I couldn't see any other outcome than a Dale victory.

It started off superbly with Dale continuing to make Stoke look poor and Rory Prendergast especially was taking the game to the Championship side making his marker look bury-like and putting in numerous decent crosses.  He was to become the hero of the night as well as with five minutes of first half extra time to go, he got on the end of a lovely Le Fondre cross and volleyed it straight into the top right hand corner leaving Hoult with no chance at all!  Two one Dale and more crazy celebrations!

The game continued to be bossed by Dale in the second half as well with Stoke on creating a couple of chances and with four minutes of stoppage time left in the game, it became unbearable and then it happened, Stoke bloody well equalised with the jammiest goal you'll see!  Richard Cresswell took advantage of a bit of tired Dale defending and toe poked the ball past Spencer to bring back memories of Fulham at home a few year previous!  We can all remember how that panned out but we didn't deserve to lose this game at all!

The match finished 2-2 and it was down to penalties which were taken in front of the WMG stand to the disappointment of the Sandy Laners. 

Tom Kennedy stepped up for Dale and sent the keeper the wrong way, 1-0 Dale.

Richard Cresswell had his penalty saved by Spencer, still 1-0.

Adam Le Fondre stepped up and had his penalty well saved by Hoult, still 1-0. 

Anthony Pulis slotted the ball just beyond Spencer who got a finger tip to it, 1-1.

Rory Prendergast tucked his penalty away superbly, 2-1 Dale.

Liam Lawrence sent Spencer the wrong way to score, 2-2.

Ben Muirhead blasted the ball past the keeper sending him the wrong way with a stunning penalty, 3-2 Dale.

Carl Dickinson then blasted the ball into orbit and miles over the bar, still 3-2 and Dale needing this next one to win it!

Gary Jones does what Gary Jones usually does and blasts his penalty into the back of the net to send Dale into round 2!  Get in!

There were an awful lot of positives to come out of tonight.  Murray played 120 minutes and looked superb alongside both Daggers and Alfie.  Gary Jones was much more impressive than Saturday.  David Perkins continues to impress.  Ben Muirhead is showing us exactly why we busted a gut to sign him permanently.  Rory Prendergast showed he can impress as well.  Tom Kennedy had another superb match, Nathan D'Laryea looked at ease against a Championship strike force and James Spencer looks impressive as well.

Delilah, Phil "The Power" Taylor (I know he's a Port Vale fan but balls to it), Adrian Lewis, Nick Hancock, Neil Morrissey, Lemmy from Motorhead, Garth Crooks, Mark Bright and them fit twins off Big Brother, your boys took one hell of a beating!

Photo: Action Images

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