BRIAN BARRY-MURPHY’S Rochdale conceded a sickening 97th-minute equaliser to AFC Wimbledon tonight to suffer a major blow in their efforts to avoid relegation to League Two.
Joe Piggot scored a late, late goal to earn AFC Wimbledon a dramatic 3-3 draw. The result leaves Rochdale in the final relegation place, four points from safety with two games to go.
A Rochdale side featuring Irish players Eoghan O’Connell, Conor Shaughnessy and Jimmy Keohane – with goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu on the bench and Paul McShane uninvolved – took a 2-0 lead tonight, but were pegged back to 2-2 before Keohane restored the lead with just 18 minutes of normal time remaining. Barry-Murphy’s side could not cling on, however, with Piggot striking right at the death in a redemptive turn, having missed a penalty minutes earlier.
Elsewhere in League One tonight, a Peterborough side featuring Irish U21 International Jack Taylor missed out on their chance to secure automatic promotion by drawing 2-2 with Doncaster. They can seal it with a win in either of their remaining two games, however, with Lincoln City eight points behind with a game in hand following their 1-0 win against Shrewsbury.
Lincoln are at least guaranteed a place in the play-offs, and Sunderland tonight missed their chance to do likewise with a 1-0 loss to Blackpool who themselves are just one place and two points behind the Black Cats and are firmly in the mix for the play-offs.
Portsmouth, meanwhile, are sweating on their place in the top six as they were held to a dramatic 3-3 draw away to Accrington Stanley.
Pompey lie in the last of the play-off spots, but are just a single point ahead of Oxford United and two ahead of Charlton, who drew 2-2 with Crewe.
In the Championship, there was good news for Wayne Rooney’s Derby in the form of Rotherham’s 1-0 loss to Brentford. Rotherham occupy the last of the Championship’s relegation places, four points adrift of Derby with two games in hand prior to tonight. That they lost one of those two additional games leaves survival in Derby’s hands.
