Dale down Alex at Spotland
Two goals each for Ian Henderson and Joe Bunney helped Rochdale see off Crewe with a comfortable 4-0 win at Spotland.
Both of Henderson's strikes came from the penalty spot while Bunney scored the second and fourth goals on an easy evening for Dale.
Crewe wasted a good early opportunity when Jamie Ness was left with just goalkeeper Jamie Jones to beat, but his attempt to dink the ball over the on-loan Dale keeper flew tamely wide of the target.
The breakthrough came in the 38th minute when Joe Rafferty was brought down by Bradden Inman, earning a penalty for his side.
Henderson had crashed his last two spot-kicks against the crossbar but this time opted for the bottom left-hand corner of Paul Rachubka's net.
The lead was almost doubled when Jack O'Connell met a corner and saw his powerful header cleared off the line by Anthony Grant.
Bunney made it 2-0 just before the hour anyway, collecting Henderson's pass on the left side of the area and slamming a low drive beyond Rachubka.
Henderson then added his second spot kick of the night following Jon Guthrie's foul on Bunney.
The visitors were denied a consolation goal when O'Connell's block tackle robbed the ball off Nicky Ajose's toes. And Jamie Allen teed up Bunney with 10 minutes to go for his second of the night.
Source: PA
