Against a very moderate Wrexham side they produced almost nothing and created only one good chance when Iyseden Christie tried a second-half header which was well saved by visiting goalkeeper Michael Ingham.
Rickie Lambert lobbed the keeper but was denied a goal by an offside flag, in the first half as Denis Smith's side grabbed the only goal of the game on 19 minutes.
A hopeful, but not impressive, lob from out on the left-wing found Matt Derbyshire, who capitalised on some indecision between keeper Matthew Gilks and defender Dave Bayliss to score a goal out of nothing.
Rochdale did not respond with any great enthusiasm or skill and the writing was on the wall even from that early stage, although Wrexham did very little to frighten anybody.
The home side, who had been fairly sound but nothing else for the first 20 minutes seemed to accept that they were beaten and seldom did they have anything that looked like a threat to offer to the Wrexham defence.
Late on the Welshmen enjoyed a bit of pressure but did not really look like adding to their score.
No doubt Wrexham deserved their win due to the enterprise of Sam Williams and Derbyshire produced what few fireworks there were in a rather dull match.