Rhodes' delight at debut strike

Reporter: Jan Harwood
Date online: 15/09/2008

Rochdale's loan signing Jordan Rhodes was thrown in at the deep end on Saturday, making his debut at Rotherham having only arrived from Ipswich Town on Friday morning.

Rhodes made the perfect start to his Dale career by opening the scoring, slamming the ball home emphatically after Rotherham keeper Andy Warrington had kept out Will Buckley's effort.

Warrington had earlier denied the 18-year old with a superb save from his downward header but the former Barnsley man was not to be denied.

"The ball fell to me nicely and I managed to keep it low and find the bottom corner. With the one before it I did what every manager or coach would say and headed it into the ground but the keeper managed to pull off a good save," he told the club's official website.

Having only made a couple of substitutes' appearances at Portman Road this season, the youngster was happy to see some first team action: "I didn't know too many names or positions to be honest having only arrived at the club on Friday but going out there to play was refreshing and I really enjoyed every minute of it."

Commenting on the game, which somehow ended 2-2 after Dale had taken a two goal lead and dominated for long periods but then had Lee Thorpe sent off for a high tackle, Rhodes said: "The sending off did change things to be fair. We looked like we were in control at 2-0 but in this day and age if you go in with your studs showing you are going to get a red card and as soon as Lee did it I think everyone knew what was going to happen. Having said that we played some fantastic football and I felt that it was a great performance from the lads in one of the barmiest games I have played in - you could see another 100 games and there would not be another like that was."