Rochdale ease past 10-man Gillingham at Spotland

Posted Sunday, September 24, 2017 by PA

Rochdale strolled to a comfortable 3-0 League One victory against a Gillingham side forced to play out the second half with 10 men.

The Gills lost striker Tom Eaves to a red card - for his second booking - just before the break for an elbow on Joe Rafferty and by that stage they were already two goals down.

The breakthrough arrived in the 24th minute as a weaving run forward from left-back Joe Bunney took him past three opponents and - while his low drive towards the bottom was saved by Tomas Holy - the goalkeeper only succeeded in parrying the ball into the path of Ian Henderson, who tapped home from close range.

It was 2-0 two minutes later as Rafferty headed into an empty net after Holy spilled Steven Davies' free-kick.

Gillingham's afternoon went from bad to worse in the 44th minute when Eaves was dismissed for an elbow on Rafferty right under the nose of referee Eddie Ilderton.

Henderson saw an 86th-minute penalty saved by Holy before substitute Matt Done added a third for Dale in the 91st minute, racing through unmarked and slipping home a neat finish.