Having queued a bit longer than I normally would do to get into Spotland, I was expecting to see a pitch on its last legs, resuscitated for one last five minute spell to see us through one more game. The reality had the pitch in a fantastic state, looking almost pictureseque with its border of snow.

But it did go to show the fantastic efforts that had taken place by both club and supporters over the last few days to not only get the pitch in such a state to satisfy the referee but also to allow us to play the sort of football that we've been spoiled with in recent times.

And wasn't it worth all the hours put in to sort it out. Or so the vast majority of the bumper crowd of 4300 thought which included such glitterati as England international footballers and Page Three girls. With almost 4000 of those in attendance coming (from out the woodwork) to support Dale, it was a great afternoon to be a supporter of League Two's leading team, as once again Dale put on a great display which was rewarded with four goals.

But it was far from being an easy victory. Undoubtedly, the opening exchanges belonged to the visitors as they raced out of the blocks, and they could have easily have found themselves a goal to the good inside the first five minutes.

After a couple of signs that they were much more than a team of walking wounded, they had a great opportunity to take the lead.  The ball broke to Michael Twiss in an almost perfect position, and as he pulled his foot back to shoot, I'd called it as 1-0 based on what a good chance it was, but Tom Heaton produced a very good save low down to keep the scoreline even.

But that scare for us gave confidence to the visitors and they continued to press. We didn't seem overly concerned at this, but for the more nervous amongst us, it was not the start we wanted.

Those nerves lasted until approximately twelve minutes into the game. A break down the left wing from Will Atkinson, who had gone close himself moments earlier, pulled the ball back to Chris O'Grady. His first attempt was blocked but yet again, O'Grady showed what wonderful reactions that he has by poking the ball into the back of the net before the Morecambe defence had even twigged where the ball was. All the Shrimps defence could do was watch, and they'd not even been charged £20 for the privilege.

Minutes later, it was 2-0 courtesy of the best 1-2 between Dale players since Paddy and Kev decided to get going at the Shay that night. Dagnall picked up the ball just into the Morecambe half, and gave it to the other Chris. As soon as he'd released the ball, he'd started his run and O'Grady had no issues turning the ball back into his path to give him a one on one. A little shimmy from our favourite Scouser saw the Morecambe keeper drop to the floor and give Daggers an open net.  The desperate attempt by one hapless defender to get back saw him land in a pile of snow at the back of the net.

At this stage, I've no doubt that there was visiting Morecambe supporters who couldn't believe what they were viewing. A vey promising start from themselves and they found themselves two goals down. I'd go as far as saying that they were actually playing very well, but when it clicks for us, there's no stopping us, and it took a superb save from Roche to deny O'Grady a second goal. By this time we were in cruise control and the first talk of "how many?" appeared.

The most frustrating thing about the first half was the position of the linesmen, who were on the "wrong side". I'd spent half of my time like some sort of Wimbledon pigeon looking around for errant flags. And even the players got in on the act at one stage.

We were rampant at this point. Very content to sit back and allow the visitors to come after us but ready to pick them off at will and Chris Dagnall was thwarted by the woodwork as he volleyed the ball off the cross bar. I'd hate to be playing us right now.

Such was the game in the bag, that we were quite relieved for a small amount of controversy in the second half to give us some talking points. Dagnall seemed to survive about half a dozen attempts on his legs at one stage, and it was only his honesty and tenacity which prevented the official blowing up - a fact Dagnall pointed out to him seconds later when a free kick was given to the visitors for something innocuous.

That moaning probably came back to bite Dagnall on the backside as a few seconds later, when a great ball through for Daggers was brought back for a free kick on Tom Kennedy. The referee booked the offending Morecambe player, almost out of justification for stopping the play in a decision that incurred the wrath of both Dale and Morecambe supporters.

But if that yellow card was weak, Morecambe were extremely lucky to remain with eleven players. In front of the main stand, as McArdle broke the tackle before having his legs swept from beneath him. Not even close to an attempt of a tackle, just a cynical and petulant attempt to bring someone down and it could only have been sympathy from the Preston based official to not issue a red card.

Talk after the game was of the potential of this Dale side to score the perfect goal. Well they can't have been too far off when we made it 3-0 with around twenty minutes to go. Some lovely one touch football saw Adam Rundle feed Tom Kennedy in, and a perfect cross from TK saw Will Atkinson leaping tall to head home. Wingers aren't supposed to score headers. Rule #782 broken under the Hillcroft regime.

And them from out of nowhere, Morecambe pulled a goal back coming via Wayne Curtis. Up until this moment, Curtis's biggest contribution was getting Dale supporters to question each other with the words "fifty thousand pounds?"

Curtis broke clear of the back line, and narrowly avoiding a last gasp tackle from Craig Dawson, he put a downer on the afternoon by sliding it past Tom Heaton to give the Shrimps a glimour of hope.

3-0 and f****d it up? Well I have to admit, once they'd pulled it back to 3-1, the thought of some footballing symmetry crossed my mind, and it took a great clearance from Rory McArdle to prevent their tally being doubled straight away.

But then came second gear.

We came close when Barry Roche produced yet another fine save from Chris O'Grady to keep Dale at three goals, but seconds later he was powerless to do anything about us increasing our lead.

Good work from loan man Taylor, who powered past the diminutive Hunter down the left wing as if he wasn't there, and he cut the ball back to Atkinson who turned the ball in to make it 4-1 and for a brief moment, Jason Kennedy credited with his first goal for Dale since he directed David Perkins' shot into the top corner in the Play Offs that time.

Any hopes at all we now diminished, and it was more of a case of "3-0 and that's what you should do if you want make sure you end up with all three points". Not that it's particularly easy to squeeze that into a chant.

That fourth goal saw the visiting heads drop even further and prompted some away supporters to call it a day to the chant of "We can see you sneaking out" when arguably there were more Dale fans leaving at the same time.

The last few minutes could have seen Dale add to their lead, but we played out time with a smile on our faces rather than in a desperate search for further goals, and the news filtering through of two late goals for Bournemouth did nothing to sour the faces - after all, it's only about us.

The final whistle saw somewhat predictably Sammy McIlroy coming on to the pitch to remonstrate with the referee. God only knows what he was complaining about this time, but it's become almost commonplace for games between ourselves and the Shrimps to finish in such a way. For a game almost devoid of a bad challenge or controversial incident, we can only assume McIlroy didn't get what he wanted for Christmas.

The three points were a well deserved one, and whilst no doubt there'll be some visiting fans incorrectly claiming that Morecambe deserved something from this game, it was a case of this highly confident Dale side playing without a shred of fear, with such clinical play, that we don't need to dominate possession to score plenty of goals.

We were up against a good side today, and whilst we were fortunate to avoid facing a side including Jevons and Mullin, we showed at 3-1, there's a second gear if need be. God help the sides to face the third, fourth and fifth. Perhaps Dave Sutton's pledge will come true albeit 18 years too late.

So we head into 2010 in first place, and the annual race to fifty points was all but forgotten about as survival was secured a long, long time ago, with Dale currently having twice as many points as six sides in the division, and a mammoth fourteen points between ourselves and the side in fourth place.

We are now in such a position that the answer to every "When was the last time we........." question is now "We haven't".

This is history in the making people.