Ian Watson lauds ‘amazing’ Ian Henderson after late Rochdale leveller

Manager Ian Watson hailed ‘amazing’ Ian Henderson after the 41-year-old striker rescued a point for Rochdale in a 2-2 draw against Grimsby at the Crown Oil Arena.

Henderson came off the bench in the 81st minute with Dale trailing 2-1 and was in the right place to turn home Charlie Tasker’s delivery seven minutes later to secure a share of the spoils.

Watson said: “It was a really hard game. I’d said to the boys beforehand that we were up against a really good side with a really good manager in David Artell.

“They have a really aggressive way of playing off the ball and it wasn’t just from restarts, it was man v man for most of the game. In those moments we have to be good with the ball and I thought we could have been a bit braver but it is really hard against such an aggressive opponent.

“It was a game that ebbed and flowed, we had the momentum, then they had it. We spoke to the lads at half-time about what we needed to improve on but we weren’t able to carry any momentum from that first half into the second and they came out a bit better than us.

“But even when we conceded the second goal I felt there was something in it for us and I don’t even have any words for Ian Henderson, he’s an amazing guy and an amazing footballer.”

Dale took the lead in the 38th minute when Glenn Middleton crossed for Dajaune Brown to slide home the opener.

But the Mariners, on the back of a four-game losing streak, turned the game on its head with Kieran Green levelling in the 57th minute and Jamie Walker firing them ahead 15 minutes later.

It looked enough to take the three points – until Henderson’s intervention.

Grimsby boss David Artell said: “We were outstanding and should have won the game.

“It probably summed up our season so far – we should have won comfortably having shown outstanding character in adversity – the run we’ve been on, the injury list.

“We should be sitting here with three points and it would be no more than we deserved. We should have won on Saturday against Northampton and we were even better tonight. The fans knew that, that’s nearly a thousand travelling supporters applauded us off at the end.

“We were magnificent. We had lots of gilt-edged chances and their only threat was in transition and through Aden Flint from set-pieces and we coped well with that.

“We dominated the first half and shouldn’t have been a goal down at half-time. We said to them at the break, let’s see what we’re made of and we kept going to the well.”