MATCH OF THE DAY: Bournemouth 0 Rochdale 4

CHRIS O'GRADY'S double turned the Cherries into prize pumpkins.

Striker O'Grady smashed two wonder strikes to stun the league leaders.

Chris Dagnall and Simon Whaley also scored as Dale moved into second spot, just two points behind their latest away-day victims.

But it was not all positive for Keith Hill's side as Nathan Stanton saw red eight minutes from time for an X-rated tackle on Bournemouth substitute Marvin Bartley.

Rochdale boss Hill said: "That was the best performance and result I've had away from home since I've been at the club.

"It's so pleasing when your gameplan comes off - and to get a clean sheet and score four good goals against one of the teams that I fancy to go up. But this is just one result at the end of the day."

Bournemouth were left shell-shocked by a slick, stylish Rochdale team that has suffered play-off heartache for the past two seasons.

But Cherries manager Eddie Howe insisted: "We have just got to put this behind us and come back even stronger.

"I am disappointed with the scoreline but this will motivate us to come back and succeed.

"Football is a hard game which kicks you when you least expect it but we will bounce back." Dale had to call in keeper Josh Lillis on an emergency loan deal just hours before the kick-off after regular No 1 Kenny Arthur went down injured.

And the Scunthorpe man did his job to perfection with a terrific instinctive save from Brett Pitman's deflected shot.

Lillis showed his worth again shortly after when he turned Pitman's 30-yard effort around a post.

Whaley was also in good shooting form but his 20-yard curler was well saved by home keeper Shwan Jalal.

But the visitors deservedly went ahead in first-half injury time when Dagnall raced on to O'Grady's clever pass to chip in his ninth of the season.

Dale then killed off the home side with three goals in nine second-half minutes.

O'Grady made it 2-0 with a cracking curling effort. Six minutes later, Whaley waltzed through four static defenders to coolly tuck away his shot.

Then, on 72 minutes, Dagnall ran rings around his defender to gift O'Grady his second.

But Stanton ruined the script with an awful challenge that will now see him suffer a four-match ban for his second dismissal of the season.

Hill added: "It was a sending off but it was just a mis-timed challenge and I don't really think there was any intent.

"He's apologised and we have apologised for the incident - it was just a bad tackle. Sometimes you can get it wrong."

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