An injury-time goal from substitute Ian Miller gave Darlington a 2-1 win in their League Two play-off semi final first leg draw at home to Rochdale.

Jason Kennedy put the hosts ahead with a superb individual goal in a first half they dominated, while Chris Dagnall levelled for the visitors in a second half that perhaps should have seen them go home for the second leg with a comfortable lead.

But - hugely against the run of play - the hosts snatched a late, late winner after Miller exploited a mistake from 'Dale keeper Tommy Lee.

It was tough on Rochdale, who bossed the latter stages of the match, and a major boost for Dave Penney's men, who seemed to have lost all momentum after they saw three key players limp off injured.

A terrible slip by Alan White played Dagnall in on nine minutes, but the Rochdale striker's excellent curling finish clattered off the inside of the crossbar and bounced to safety.

Otherwise, the opening 45 minutes was all Darlington. They went straight down the other end and a similar error by Rochdale defender Nathan D'Laryea allowed Ricky Ravenhill to cut the ball back to Michael Cummins who got a shot in that David Stockdale parried well.

Incredibly, as Rochdale tried to clear, former Manchester City trainee D'Laryea repeated the gift directly to Cummings, although this time his shot was blocked.

Quality was thin on the ground for Rochdale, who favoured long balls into the flanks and the percentage game of shooting on sight and hoping for a deflection or error.

Darlington, meanwhile, were getting the ball on the ground to use the pace and trickery of Cummins and Julian Joachim to cause serious problems for the visiting defence.

But it was a moment of Premier League-level inspiration that broke the deadlock when, on 28 minutes, Darlington's on-loan Middlesbrough youngster Kennedy deftly killed a long ball with a supreme first touch and then curled a sublime curling finish past the helpless Lee.

It was a strike that inspired some of the Rochdale fans behind the goal to applaud the 21-year-old, and was in stark contrast to the rest of the first half, which saw both sides literally tread water on a heavily-sprinkled pitch.

But Rochdale's side are young and athletic and they slowly worked their way back into the match.

First Dagnall went close when he easily beat Steve Foster for pace and drilled a low shot across goal. Then Kallum Higginbotham started to test Dave Penney's men with some direct running on the right wing, as Darlington's defence became more and more stretched.

Cummins, meanwhile, nearly created a second for Darlo when his right-wing cross was almost converted by former Leicester trainee Tommy Wright, who picked up what was ultimately a game-ending injury in the process.

Rochdale had threatened to level for around 20 minutes and it came when a speculative shot by Dagnall - preferred on the day by boss Keith Hill to top scorer Adam Le Fondre - took a huge deflection off Foster to wrong-foot Stockdale and trickle into the bottom left on 70 minutes.

It was all Rochdale now, and substitute Ben Muihead fired into the side netting after Rory McArdle was allowed a free header from a corner.

Things went from bad to worse for Darlo when Ben Parker joined Wright on the injury list, taken off with a hamstring injury.

And there was yet more injury woe for Darlo when White limped off late on, although he only suffered a dead leg and should play in the second leg.

But the final twist came in a frantic - and lengthy - period of injury-time, ironically afforded by the series of injuries to a Darlington side who were hanging on.

A free-kick on the left was punted into the area and Lee tried to punch the ball clear. He missed and Miller - only on the pitch due to the misfortune of White - flung himself towards goal to head into an empty net.

The action was not over as five minutes after the 90 Howe burst down the other end and forced a good stop from Stockdale.

The second leg will be played at Spotland on Saturday May 17.

Reda Maher / Eurosport