A very much second string Dale side won 2-0 at Rossendale to give Keith Hill a winning start and a clean sheet to the pre-season campaign.

Hopes of seeing the new signings were dashed as despite whatever the tannoyman said, as the red capped Keith Hill gave the first team the afternoon off, perhaps wisely given that it was only 48 hours since getting off the plane.

The game was as standard fayre as we get at Rossendale every pre-season, with the young Dale side coming up against a physically much bigger side (much, much bigger in one Rossendale player's case) on an afternoon to be spent under cover.

All of the trialists were on display this afternoon, with O'Donnell and Goodall in defence, Buchanan and Done in midfield and Akins up front, but it was the younger Dale players who were the ones to catch the eye.

The one Summer signing to make the field was Jack Redshaw, and he looked exceptionally lively throughout, but unfortunately he was forced off the field midway through the first half with a foot injury.

The Dale goals came through Callum Byrne and the wonderfully named Helio André - both products of the Dale youth system, and if anything it was André who's goal was certainly the better of the two, and who arguably was the pick of the Dale players on display. Things didn't always come off for him, but you could see there were signs of intelligence and a willingness to learn from him.

We were never really threatened at the back.

Dale: Edwards, Brown, Goodall, Flynn, O'Donnell, Gray, Byrne, Buchanan, Done, Redshaw (André), Akins.

Photo: Action Images

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