Quick fire MK Dons bury Rochdale in 8 Minutes

MK Dons score three goals in eight second half minutes; turning up the heat on Dale boss Brian Barry-Murphy with their 4-1 win away at the Crown Oil Arena.

The loss for Dale was their 3rd consecutive defeat and it is now 12 games at their home ground where they have failed to register a win. 

Russell Martin's men were fast from the start and put themselves in front after just 5 minutes with an excellent strike from Matt O'Riley, who curled one in from around 20 yards out beating Bazunu in his bottom right corner.

After the goal Rochdale began to get more of a foot hold in the game, with a few good counter attacks on the Dons keeper, Andrew Fisher. Dale had a strong appeal for a penalty turned down by Carl Boyeson despite having looked to be brought down inside the area, but the Referee decided to give a foul against Humphreys for diving.

Dale continued to fight their way back into it and they levelled in the 39th minute. Rathbone applied pressure high in the Dons half, winning the ball back and played in Humphreys, who squared it across the goal for Rochdale's top scorer of the year, Matty Lund, who slotted it home for his 11th of the season. 

Cameron Jerome played the ball in the back of the net again for the visitors just before the end of the first half, but his effort was ruled out with a dubious offside decision following lengthy deliberation between the Referee and Linesman.

After the break MK Dons started the better of the two teams and once again took the lead through a headed effort from Zak Joules. It was a lovely delivery from O'Riley who found Jerome completely unmarked; his header struck across the cross bar, but Joules was alert to the loose ball and he nodded home his first goal in a Dons shirt without even a challenge from a Dale player.

It was just three minutes later and Scott Fraser had scored his 8th goal of the season to double the Dons lead. Fraser won the ball just inside the Dale area and then skipped past weak, half-hearted challenges from a couple of Rochdale players. Then from edge of the D he whipped the ball into the right hand side of Bazunu's goal and the keeper didn't really make an effort for it.

Martin's men really had a taste for goals and just after the hour mark they made it 4-1. There was some excellent link up play from a few of the Dons players and they managed to slip Grigg in behind who almost replicated the Dale goal by squaring it to the back post for his Strike partner Jerome, who had the easiest finish for his 11th goal of the season.

On an extremely cold night in Rochdale it will undoubtedly have been Russell Martin and his men who were the happier side, after a thoroughly professional job away from home. This lack-lustre performance from the Dale players will have left Brian Barry-Murphy and his staff with lots of unanswered questions about their fight against the drop, with many fans feeling that his time as Dale boss could be up.