It's good to be back as Oasis sang back in the mid 90's. Dale entertained them from the other side of the A627(M) at Spotland with that Rose Bowl thingy being up for grabs.

It was Dale that emerged victorious in a pretty even contest having taken a second half lead through Adam Le Fondre's penalty which was cancelled out ten minutes later by Stefan Stam's free header only for Chris Dagnall to bag a winner with about five minutes left.

The first home pre-season match is always good because you take note of the small things that occur every home match during the season like the same old Golden Gamble salespeople, same faces in the pub before the game, the lovely Lisa pulling the pints behind the bar in Studds, super steward Hogie keeping order in the Sandy, Dave Sweetmore playing class tunes and the same people stood in pretty much the same places in the Sandy. Roll on August when it starts to matter!

Also a special mention goes to our debutant, Spotty The Dalemation Dog who wandered around the pitch in the shadow of the legend that is Desmond the Dragon. There must be some sort of deal on Winalot and Pedigree Chum as well, either that or our Spotty hasn't been getting enough walks! I just hope he doesn't think our corner flags are lamp posts!!

There were a few changes to the lineup for this game with Lee Crooks replacing Nathan (Who needs Laughing Cow when we've got..) Dairylea, Rory Prendergast replacing trialist Jerome Watt and John Doolan replacing David Perkins, neither Perkins or Terry were on the bench either.

The first half was a hard fought affair with both sides creating chances but not being able to put them away.

With not long gone, Adam Le Fondre took too long to set himself up and as he was about to shoot, the opportunity was gone.

Daggers also had the chance to score and should really have done better but his shot was easily saved by Mark Crossley.

James Spencer was given his first real test of pre-season when a Jean-Paul Koala bear effort was brilliantly tipped over the bar for a corner.

Oldham then took off half of their team for some reason and replaced them with a load of second stringers which seemed a bit bizarre to me but nevermind.

Quite a poor half of football really which ended goalless though Oldham had looked more dangerous to me.

The second half started perfectly for Rochdale with Le Fondre making Stefan Stam look quite silly in the box and Stam brought down Alfie with the referee left with no other option but to blow for a penalty. Le Fondre took the ball ahead of Jones and sent Crossley the wrong way to make it 1-0 to Rochdale.

The lead only lasted 10 minutes or so when Chris Taylor put in a corner which Stefan Stam headed home with ease having been left all alone in the box, much like Southport's first goal on Saturday really.

Oldham brought back the first teamers that went off and looked to attack the Dale back line but Dale began to play a bit more themselves.

Dale brought on a few subs of their own as Gary Brown and Callum Warburton replaced Ben Muirhead and Rory Prendergast while Nathan Dairylea and Kallum Higginbotham replaced Lee Crooks and Adam Le Fondre.

James Spencer looked a little edge when coming for crosses and one such cross had to be tipped away but he could only tip it onto the bar and lucky managed to get hold of it again on the ground.

Lewis Alessandra should have put Oldham ahead though when a ball fell to him in the box about 6 yards out and he completely miss-controlled it!

Craig Davies blasted a shot at Spencer which the former Stockport keeper did well to keep out.

Chris Dagnall had a similar effort at the other end as Mark Crossley saved very well to keep the score at 1-1.

Daggers wasn't to be denied though and he used great skill to get past two defenders and then slot the ball past Crossley to make it 2-1 to Dale with just a few minutes left on the clock.

The game finished 2-1 and it was good to see a decent performance following games against much lesser opposition. I do still think we're missing Murray, Rundle and Stanton but when they're back fit, it could improve us an awful lot.