​DARIO Gradi was left lamenting his side’s quality as Crewe went down to a 2-0 loss at League Two leaders Rochdale.

Chris O’Grady’s 16th goal of the season secured Dale an early lead after the Alex had suffered the blow of losing Calvin Zola to a hamstring injury.

Then Matt Tootle’s own goal shortly at the second-half left Gradi’s men with too much to do against a powerful side.

The Alex boss admitted: “It wasn’t a good afternoon for us, but the boys stuck at it.

“We couldn’t produce the quality they did as we gave the ball away and they had two very good strikers in O’Grady and Chris Dagnall.”

Crewe were left to play most of the game with the unfamiliar strike partnership of Shaun Miller and Byron Moore.

The closest they went to reducing the arrears was an effort from Luke Murphy, which was kept out by Dale keeper Frank Fielding.

Gradi added: “Everything is going against us at the moment, but we’ve got to keep going.”