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Gillingham will feel they are favourites to clinch a place at Wembley for the League Two Play-off Final after holding Rochdale to a 0-0 draw at Spotland.

The Gills started brightly, and should have been in front just before the break when Andy Barcham couldn't quite get a proper connection on Stewart Lewis's superb delivery from the right.

The forward seemed to shin it towards goal, and it was heading for the bottom corner until Frank Fielding adjusted enough to get down and claw it away.

The young keeper even sprung up to claim Barcham's follow up, but the ball had been diverted too wide and the chance was gone.

William Buckley had Rochdale's best chance of the first half when he picked the ball up 30 yards out, turned two defenders, and cheekily stabbed an effort just wide of the post when Simon Royce may have been expecting a blast.

Overall, though, it was a drab first period, with neither team looking like they wanted to give way first.

Keith Hill needed to instil belief and ambition into his side during the interval, and Dale did seem to come out with an extra spring in their step.

But it was his opposite number, Mark Stimson's team, that had the first serious effort after the restart. Lewis nicked the ball from Gary Jones after a woeful first touch, and lashed a shot that looked top corner bound until Fielding, at full stretch, produced a marvellous save.

Minutes later, Dale substitutes Joe Thompson and Chris Dagnall, who replaced the anonymous Adam Le Fondre, and the lively Buckley, combined to superb effect, and created the home side's best chance of the match.

Dagnall ran the ball across the Gills box before laying it off to Thompson, who found his fellow sub with the return, and Dagnall drove a low shot at the near post from six yards, which Royce did brilliantly to turn away in what was probably his first call into action all evening.

The game petered out after that, and though you might imagine Hill would have wanted to take a lead into the second leg if his men are to stand a chance of progressing to Wembley, they seemed unable to force the issue. Rochdale never again looked like troubling Royce, who had a relatively comfortable night in the away goal.

It finished 0-0, and frankly Rochdale looked poor by the end as the Gills looked the team most likely to score.

They home side held out, however, to set up a winner-takes-all clash at the KRBS Priestfield Stadium when the two come face to face again for the honour of contesting promotion at Wembley.

Massimo Marioni / Eurosport