ROCHDALE 1 CITY 1

THEY say it’s the hope that kills you.

The hope that attracted just under 1,500 City fans across the Pennines to follow a team that hadn’t managed a single goal in their last four away games, let alone got a point.

The hope that a team unable to string back-to-back wins together since New Year’s Day would suddenly launch into a six-game victory charge to roar back into the play-offs.

The hope that others above them would simultaneously implode to open the way for a late run to match the incredible finale Simon Grayson conjured up as Blackpool boss 11 years ago.

But even allowing for the gift-wrapped late equaliser on Saturday, and the extravagant celebrations that followed at rescuing a point, those fanciful dreams have surely died off now.

“It’s in our hands” was the mantra being pumped out by the Valley Parade PR machine in advance of the trip to the team fourth from bottom.

But, given the number of clubs far stronger placed in the race for the final play-off spots, their destiny was as much in City’s hands as the Stephen Warnock cross that home keeper Josh Lillis spilled to present Charlie Wyke with the easiest of tap-ins.

Yes, the next three games are all at home where City have got their act together since Grayson’s arrival. Yes, they are all against teams beneath them – two locked in the relegation dogfight with Rochdale and another with little to play for.

But even four wins on the spin, taking in a last-day triumph at Scunthorpe, would only reach 70 points. It’s hard to imagine that at least two out of Scunthorpe, Charlton and Plymouth will not surpass that figure.

And that’s without mentioning the minus 10 goal difference millstone hanging round City’s necks.

So realistically, it’s pride – and contracts – that are the chief goals in the final fortnight.

Any chance of something more disappeared with another unsatisfying away day.

At least, those travelling supporters finally enjoyed a first goal on the road since Tyrell Robinson’s late header at the Valley in February. A wait of 459 minutes, or well over seven hours of trying – with precious few efforts on target in that time.

Perhaps that could explain the elation sparked by Wyke’s leveller, though it would have been more understandable had it turned out to be the winner.

In the bigger picture, a draw suited neither side – Rochdale were certainly kicking themselves after spurning yet another opportunity to escape from the relegation places.

No team in League One have dropped more points from winning positions than Keith Hill’s side. The two lost to the Bantams mean that a staggering 29 have now disappeared down the plughole.

If they go down, it will be due to a season of foot-shooting. They can blame nobody but themselves.

Rochdale certainly didn’t play like a team in the desperate clutches of a survival scrap. The only giveaway was the tension on and off the pitch which grew in the closing stages.

You sensed the home crowd were anticipating the inevitable when something would go wrong.

The late point, while not enough to reclaim any ground on the top six, still proved a bonus for the Bantams despite an improved second-half showing.

There had been an all-too-familiar feel about the afternoon from the moment the home side had taken the lead just before the break.

Without injured duo Tyrell Robinson and Callum Guy, Simon Grayson fielded a team packed with experience. There were only two under-25s in the starting line-up.

But they also lacked guile and inspiration and did not press Rochdale in the way they had harried and hustled Shrewsbury and Portsmouth in the previous home outings.

Dale skipper Callum Camps was too often allowed to pick up the ball in front of his back four and advance towards halfway without interruption.

Rochdale had the room to play up to battering ram Calvin Andrew, who gave Kai Bruenker a lesson in how to impose yourself as a physical target man.

Andrew’s power and presence in the first half earned the home side the yardage to get at City. When the ball went up to him, it tended to stick.

An early flick-on set in Joe Thompson but Colin Doyle stood up well in his goal-mouth to block.

Then Romain Vincelot, recalled in Guy’s absence but not named captain, pulled off a goal-saving tackle on Oliver Rathbone after Andrew had brushed off Nathaniel Knight-Percival like swatting away a fly.

Vincelot almost turned Joe Rafferty’s cut-back into his own goal before Rochdale finally made the break with three minutes left in the half.

Thompson’s deep cross was knocked back by Brad Inman and Matt Done found space for a fierce shot that deflected off Timothee Dieng’s shoulder and beyond the diving Doyle.

City had offered very little the other way. Bruenker was going nowhere and possession kept being given away.

Grayson switched it soon after the restart, introducing the fit-again Nicky Law for the big German.

The change was immediate as Law, making the most of the superb playing surface, ensured City not only kept the ball but actually used it with some purpose.

They were less passive and things started to happen. Wyke volleyed over McMahon’s cross and Law combined with Warnock before firing across goal and past the post.

Camps no longer had the freedom of Spotland in midfield and City were able to keep Andrew on a tighter leash.

He should still have scored but failed to react to a cross-shot from sub Stephen Humphrys that needed the merest nudge as it whizzed across the goal-mouth.

City were still let down by the final delivery, particularly from out wide where Alex Gilliead infuriated by regularly beating his man only to then misfire the pass. Tony McMahon also over-egged a couple of set-pieces which cleared their intended targets in the box.

It looked like the pattern would continue when Warnock launched a hopeful ball into the mix as time ran out.

Lillis went to take it in front of his defenders as Wyke took a cursory interest – but then the City hitman pounced on the unexpected rebound when the ball slithered out of the keeper’s hands.

A potentially huge mistake for Rochdale; a pick-me-up for the Bantams. The unbeaten run since the Blackpool horror show goes on but surely nothing more than that.

PLAYER RATINGS

ROCHDALE: Lillis 6, McGahey 6, McNulty 6, Delaney 6, Rafferty 7, Thompson 7 (Humphrys 73min), Camps 7, Rathbone 6 (Ntlhe 51min, 6), Done 8, Inman 7 (Gillam 85min), Andrew 7. Subs (not used): Wiseman, Moore, Morley, Dobre.

CITY: Doyle 6, McMahon 6, Knight-Percival 6, Kilgallon 7, Warnock 7, Gilliead 5, Dieng 5, Vincelot 6 (Poleon 77min), Lund 5 (McCartan 89min), Bruenker 5 (Law 54min, 7), Wyke 6. Subs (not used): Chicksen, Devine, Patrick, Raeder.