Interim manager Jimmy McNulty is hoping to take charge of relegated Rochdale on a permanent basis next season.
Dale ended 102 years as an EFL club with a 1-1 draw at Harrogate, with Jimmy Keohane’s first-half goal cancelled out by a Toby Sims effort after the break.
But the Lancashire outfit have at least been relegated with a semblance of pride under McNulty, who oversaw three wins and three draws during the final eight fixtures of the campaign.
On his hopes of staying at the Spotland helm in the National League next term, McNulty said: “The club want to go through a thorough recruitment process and I think that’s good. It’s what should be done.
“It’s partly my doing too because, every time the club have wanted to speak to me about the situation, I’ve just wanted to concentrate on the players and the next game. But I know the club want a head coach and, for certain, I want the job.
“We’ve got six results from the last eight games, which no-one would have said we could have done, so I’m happy with how it’s gone and when it’s my turn, I’ll be speaking to the club in the next few days about how we move forward.”
Delivering his verdict on the game, McNulty added: “It was a good away point and I’d like to know how many passes led to our goal, because I really enjoyed watching it.
“We just looked a bit tired in the second half and it showed how short we are as a squad because we had no real options to help out.”
Harrogate finished nine points clear of the bottom two, having lost just one of their final 10 fixtures after flirting with relegation for long periods of the campaign.
Boss Simon Weaver said: “I’m hoping the form we’ve been on can launch us into next season because we had gone through some hardship and the eye of a storm.
“Lessons will need to be learned but this group of players have shown now that they can hold their nerve under pressure. Our supporters have also stayed loyal and they realise the journey that we’ve been on.
“It’s been difficult at times because we’ve had a series of bad runs but that’s when you find out the most about your friends and fans and they have stood by us.”
He also praised right-back Sims, who scored his first goal in the English pro game having made the unlikely switch from US second-tier outfit Pittsburgh Riverhounds in January.
“It’s easy to think that a move won’t work because he’s 25 and hasn’t played at this level before,” Weaver acknowledged.
“But I think we’ve got a gem in Toby and there’s no player I would have wanted more to score our final goal of the season.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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