Albion were robbed of a richly deserved victory in a tale of two late free-kicks.

The first, a sublime effort by Richard Carpenter with three minutes left, was due reward for the Seagulls on the balance of play.

But little Lee Todd levelled in similar style with the last kick of the match five minutes into injury time to deny Albion their first win at Spotland for 29 years.

Emotions were understandably running high after such an explosive finale and Micky Adams reacted to a remark by Rochdale substitute Michael Oliver as the players came off.

The incident briefly threatened to develop into something more serious until Oliver's team-mate David Flitcroft acted as peacemaker by parting the feuding pair.

Adams appeared to be more victim than culprit, but he will be relieved that referee Peter Walton did not see the incident.

This was his first match back in the dugout following a 14-day ban for misconduct.

The boss had every right to be satisfied with the way his side performed in the absence through injury of 25-goal Bobby Zamora.

They won 1-0 at Barnet on Boxing Day without the suspended Zamora and Albion looked sure to stage a repeat when Carpenter struck in Beckhamesque manner.

The Spotland bookmaker offering 25-1 on Carpenter to be the first goalscorer clearly had no knowledge of the midfielder's dead ball expertise.

At least one Albion fan, tempted by such generous odds, was licking his lips when Rochdale conceded a free-kick 25 yards out.

Carpenter did not disappoint. A curving effort, hit with pace with his right foot, clinically exploited the gap created by Gary Hart breaking from the end of the defensive wall.

Carpenter's fifth League goal of the campaign was almost identical to one he scored in the FA Cup rout of Aldershot back in November.

Irritatingly for the Seagulls Todd decided anything you can do I can do just as well.

The free-kick conceded by Andy Crosby was not quite as far out and in a slightly more central position.

It demanded a touch more finesse from Todd to get the ball over the wall and back down quickly enough to find the net.

The diminutive former Stockport fullback obliged with his left foot to rescue a point which maintains Rochdale's hopes of grabbing a play-off place.

For the most part their tentative performance was in keeping with a team now without a win for 12 matches, which is the number of points Albion require from their remaining eight games to be certain of promotion.

In reality it will be much less than that, since it is reasonable to assume Hartlepool will not finish with six straight wins.

It is a question of when, not if, they go up, which on the evidence of this assured all-round display will be sooner rather than later.

The only slight disappointment was their failure to test more often Rochdale's fit-again goalkeeper Neil Edwards, considering the amount of possession they had and the territorial supremacy they enjoyed for long periods.

Albion missed the target with their best chances. Paul Rogers headed over early on when well placed and Hart, a diligent deputy for Zamora, couldn't keep the ball down from virtually on the line as he stretched to get a foot on Rogers' close-range shot.

The cleanest opportunity fell to Steve Melton early in the second half, but he stabbed the wrong side of a post after running onto a slide-rule pass by Nathan Jones through the heart of the Rochdale defence.

Such scares for an Albion back four, in which 18-year-old Adam Virgo was accomplished once more on his away debut, were less frequent.

It took Rochdale 43 minutes to muster a shot, another ten to force their first corner.

The only serious save for Michel Kuipers was from a Wayne Evans cross, which the retreating keeper clawed over the bar.

Adams' assistant Bob Booker said: "The lads deserved all three points.

"It was a total team performance, from the defence right through to the front men.

"We have got honest pros and when they work as hard as that they deserve the rewards."

The big reward is getting closer by the game.