There is a thin line in football between unbridled joy and utter devastation. Eight minutes of stoppage time encapsulated this perfectly, and painfully, in the climax of one of the greatest title finales in living memory.
Trailing leaders York by two points as they entered the fifth of six added minutes, Rochdale thought they’d produced yet another late show when it mattered most. They were still alive in this National League title race thanks to 90-plus-minute winners against Sutton United, Wealdstone and Braintree Town, and it seemed certain all that drama hadn’t gone in vain when Emmanuel Dieseruvwe headed home in the dying moments. Bedlam broke out at Spotland – fans were on the pitch, shirts were off and nabbed as a collectors item. This was a day for Dale’s history.
There was a lengthy delay as the officials, assisted by Rochdale manager Jim McNulty, tried to restore order to finish the game and confirm the club’s extraordinary return to the Football League after three seasons in the fifth tier. But that wasn’t to be. In the 103rd minute, the hosts were dealt a crushing taste of their own medicine.
York threw a Hail Mary towards the Rochdale box, their season depending on it. Pinball ensued, with desperate blue bodies doing everything they could to stop the ball from going over the line. But as Josh Stones fired it against substitute Tyler Smith, the linesman bravely raised his flag; he deemed it to have crossed the line. Replays failed to give conclusive evidence whether it did or not – it was unbelievably tight and there is no VAR or goal-line technology at this level. Regardless of reality, that call proved decisive.
Now it was the visiting fans invading the pitch, some of those which queued overnight to secure their space in the Spotland away end. Top spot had been regained in the very last breath of a breathtaking season.
Rochdale were despondent; they’ll be required to go through the play-offs to earn League Two status, despite finishing the season as a centurion on 105 points. Both clubs issued a statement calling for the fifth-tier to earn a third promotion spot to prevent further “injustice”, a reiteration of the 3UP campaign. Any change will come too late for Dale, now charged with doing what only six second-placed teams – out of 23 – have done since the system was initially revamped to add a second promotion spot at the end of 2002/03. The play-offs are perilous.
It was remarkable that this contest, played between two teams with a combined 212 points, went goalless for 95 minutes. When the stakes are this high, it’s not uncommon to witness a lull during the early stages – there can be a mental block from going all-guns-blazing right from the outset, with a habitual fear that one mistake could be defining. That was not the case at Spotland, which was bouncing before the players left the tunnel.
Fed by an intoxicating atmosphere, Rochdale’s Dan Moss was quick to set the tone. After trading blows with Jeff King inside the first three minutes, he clattered into York stopper Harrison Male as a looping Tobi Adebayo-Rowling cross drops into his grasp, forcing man and ball into the net. As illegal as it was, it provided an early visual for the home fans of York’s goal being breached.
Dale started with the momentum but it was York who produced the first real scare of the afternoon. Catching the hosts napping from a free-kick, Alex Hunt faked a lofted delivery and instead slipped league top scorer Ollie Pearce into the box to give the formidable Minstermen poacher a clear sight at goal. He was superbly denied by Manchester City loanee and namesake Ollie Whatmuff – an England U19 regular who already has a £10m valuation by his parent club. He wasn’t to know the referee had called for a foul off the ball as Pearce let fly, searching for his 35th of the season, getting out quickly and making the save.
It was the first big save Whatmuff, who has performed beyond his 18 years all season, made in this seismic contest – and his heroics between the sticks threatened to define it for Dale. With York determined to make good of their goalscoring prowess rather than sit back settle for the point they needed, Whatmuff came to the rescue to deny Stones one-on-one after the restart before readjusting incredibly to flap the striker’s deflected effort past the post. He then denied Joe Grey with the goal gaping on 90 minutes, which would have signalled party time in York.
But still needing a fairytale finish at the other end, McNulty had turned to Mr Rochdale: 41-year-old Ian Henderson, the club’s all-time record goalscorer, whose introduction off the bench on the 68th minute provided Spotland a lift on its own. Three of his last four goals have come in crucial one-goal victories across the past month – his team now needed him more than ever.
And having relied for so much of this game on their future star between the sticks, Dale’s elder statesman produced one more moment of brilliance deep into stoppage time, which at the time seemed decisive. Delivering expertly for top scorer Dieseruvwe, Rochdale’s talisman of old set up the new. This was the ending that scriptwriters would have been dreaming of.
Alas, it was to be York’s day, sealing a return to the Football League after 10 years out in the most dramatic fashion. Troy Deeney and Sergio Aguero have come before him. Stones is now among an elite-class of football’s season-definers.
