Managers have come and gone, money has become ever tighter and the turnover in personnel has turned having a player’s name printed on a replica shirt into a high-risk strategy.Burley has shed Derby’s big earners, Georgi Kinkladze, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Rob Lee and Craig Burley. After a summer of defections, they fielded only three players from that game, alongside six debutants. With hapless assistance from a youthful, na? Derby, however, Tony Pulis’ team departed with three of the easiest points they will ever collect.Pulis, who landed the Stoke manager’s job last November because Burley turned it down, was still shoring up his squad 24 hours before the match when he signed Keith Andrews and Darel Russell. Each integrated seamlessly as a side hardly long in the tooth themselves were made to resemble men against boys.Much has changed – at both clubs – since Stoke escaped the Second Division within weeks of Derby’s top-flight demise 15 months ago. It may be early doors, to use the vernacular, yet there was something ominous about the way Stoke left them looking like mutton dressed as Rams.
Stoke escaped relegation only on the final day of last season.
Rochdale found it hard to penetrate beyond Paul Connor’s equaliser and a couple of enterprising runs from Leo Bertos. But Gall, the former Newcastle reserve, could easily have doubled his tally.With Yeovil there is always the tendency to focus on the past and their giant-killing feats of FA Cup folklore. That could be about to change: the future appears full of exciting possibilities.Goals: Gall (26) 0-1; Connor (45) 1-1; Johnson (55) 1-2; Gall (67) 1-3.Rochdale (4-4-2): Gilks; Evans, Burgess, Grand, Simpkins; Bertos (Betts, 71), Beech (McEvilly, 71), McClare, McCourt (Doughty, 46); Shuker, Connor. Substitutes not used: Edwards, Townson.Yeovil Town (3-5-2): Weale; Lockwood, O’Brien, Pluck (Rodrigues, 43); Gosling (El Kholti, 79), Williams (Lindegaard, 65), Johnson, Way, Crittenden; Gall, Jackson. Substitutes not used: Stansfield, Collis.Referee: M Warren (West Midlands).Bookings: Rochdale: Grand, Shuker, McClare, Connor, Burgess. Yeovil: Rodrigues, Gosling.Man of the match: Gall.Attendance: 4,611..
From the Premiership, Portugal and even Peru they came, the newcomers to whom George Burley was looking to kick-start a Derby revival. And Alan Buckley, Rochdale’s new manager, had a point when he said that the scales were loaded in the visitors’ favour because of the momentum that has endured following their record-breaking Conference campaign. “I’ve told them I hope we continue to play in 100C heat through the season,” said their manager, Gary Johnson. “We looked the stronger in the second half and looked comfortable throughout.
Matching away victories for both Yeovil and Doncaster, newly promoted from the Nationwide Conference: whatever happened to those ideas of respect and feeling your way cautiously amid unfamiliar surroundings? At this rate the “fifth” division will be insisting on three of their number making the step up to the Football League. Palace: Popovic, Smith.Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).Attendance: 12,976.Man of the match: Freedman.. Substitutes not used: Berthelin (gk), Black.Sendings-off: Palace: Routledge, Derry.Bookings: Burnley: Weller, Gnohere. Substitute not used: Scott (gk).Crystal Palace (3-4-1-2): Clarke; Powell, Symons (Borrowdale, 21; Smith, 76), Popovic; Butterfield, Derry, Watson (Riihilahti, 62), Routledge; Freedman; Shipperley, Johnson.
