Lee Bell admitted his frustrations as Crewe finished on the back foot against League Two's bottom club.

In fact, had it not been for a brilliant last-ditch piece of defending from Rod McDonald in the dying minutes then Rochdale may have sneaked an unlikely win after Connor O'Riordan was sent off in the 86th-minute of today's League Two clash.

It had looked odds on the Alex would be completing a double over Jim Bentley's strugglers after Rio Adebisi atoned for a poor first-half miss with a bludgeoning headed finish in the 70th-minute.

But slack defending allowed Jimmy Keohane to follow up his header, which struck the post, for an equaliser 10 minutes later. And O'Riordan's dismissal after the defender earnt a second yellow card for a late challenge on Owen Dodgson left the Railwaymen hanging on.

Connor O'Riordan was given his marching orders in the closing minutes (Picture credit: Kevin Warburton).

Bell said: "I'm frustrated as in the second half it looked as there was only one team was going to win that match.

"Rochdale put us under pressure early on and the conditions played a part in that. But the boys picked up the messages we gave them at half-time and they showed great endeavour in the second half.

"There's work to be done on our decision making, although I couldn't fault the players.

"But I was disappointed with their goal as there were too many mistakes leading up to it.

"And we'd spoken to Connor at half-time because he'd been booked and he will have to learn from that."

Crewe were indebted to on-loan keeper James Beadle for some fine glove work in the opening minutes. The 18-year-old. making his home debut, pushed Dodgson's deflected shot onto the bar and saved Ian Henderson's rebound effort before turning around a low shot from Danny Lloyd.

There was another let off in the first half when Devante Rodney latching onto a flick-on and was heading towards the box before he was tripped by Sean Robertson, whose booking was correct as the Forest Green loan man didn't appear to be the last man.

Rio Adebisi heads the Alex ahead (Picture credit: Kevin Warburton).

With the pitch and the prevailing wind against them, Crewe took time to emerge as a force. But Dale keeper Jake Eastwood pushed out Joel Tabiner's close-range effort before Adebisi, offered a free header at the back post from Tabiner's cross just before the interval, made a complete botch of his finish and headed wide from close range.

Crewe failed to make the most of another opportunity soon after the break when Dan Agyei rifled an effort into the side netting after he had time to produce a better finish when a poor throw from Eastwood landed at his feet.

Adebisi, though, made amends by applying a super header onto a driven cross from Tabiner, only for Keohane to rescue a point for Dale, whose boss Bentley said: "We were the better side in the first half and we started really well. We played some good stuff and got the ball into good areas, but we don't do enough at the other end.

"We could have done better with Crewe's goal as it we gave a 5ft 10 wing back a free header.

"We didn't get the rub of the green, but we have got to keep going and we've got hope and belief we can get out of trouble."

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