The first mention of the night has to go to the Tannoy Man who was without any shadow of a doubt the man of the match. The gentleman in question really went out of his way to make you feel at home by giving you his full life history in the opening monologue, waving to everyone in the crowd, whilst promising to get to know every single one of us by the time the season comes to a close.

And if that wasn't enough, he ensured that the first five minutes of the second half was played out to a sountrack of Transvision Vamp. Oh, where is Wendy James when you want her?

Our starting eleven consisted of six players who I would say are definites for that opening game at Peterborough in a few weeks time, and a few others who will certainly be doing their best in the next few weeks to convince Keith Hill to include them.

We got our first opportunity to see James Spencer, Nathan D'Laryea, Tom Kennedy (and how did we forget Dead Kennedys on that list?) and Kallum Higginbotham.

Out of those new signings, it was probably Higginbotham who stood out the most. Having come to the club from Oldham, he's definitely come in as fourth choice striker, with both eyes very much on the future, but at just eighteen, there's clearly an ability there, and whilst he was easily pushed off the ball early in the game, the lad has talent and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a lot more run outs this season than what we might have expected.

First half was pretty much what you'd have expected. Dale controlled the game, played nice pretty football throughout and used the game as a training opportunity. It was controlled in as far as we did the sort of things that we'll be expecting to do in a proper League match rather than just trying to go for the kill and win by as many goals as possible. Both wings were utilised and all the new lads looked to have settled well.

Full opportunities were a little thin on the ground. Le Fondre had the best chance of the first half, when he broke clear of the last line of defence with a simple one on one with former Bury and Halifax keeper Lee Bracey but to the surprise of the entire ground, just when we were expecting the sort of Alfie shuffle as demonstrated in many a match warm up session, he put the ball wide of the mark.

Other issues of note from the first half include Adam Rundle forced off with a rib injury to be replaced by last season's forgotten man Rory Prendergast. Rundle's withdrawal seemed precautionary as much as anything, and not something to be overly concerned about.

Half time came and saw more entertainment from the man on the mike, and Muirhead was replaced by the man with no name. Games like this are great for trialists, especially when no one has a clue to the name. Speculation is rife, and the whispering only died down once our bidding Martin Samuel was despatched to find out. Scoop returned minutes later with the news that the new right winger was a Jerome Watt, who had played for Blackburn and England u-19's as demonstrated in the picture above.

Watt turned out to be a cracking player, and was certainly the most talked about aspect of the second half. He had that natural enthusiasm that all players hoping to win a contract seem to have, but with a bag of tricks up his sleeve too. He was quite happy to run at players, and he had this in built instinct to get into the box and let fire when given the opportunity. One particular run stoof out where he forced his full back into flying in without doing anything. Impressive stuff.

The goal came not long into the second half. I've speculated that it was about the 53 minute mark but that was just a random guess to be honest. It was the lively Higginbotham who got the goal when he "did a Nugent" as its become known. It was Alfie who did all the hard work, which included being fouled in the box. With the referee unwilling to act upon the foul, Alfie produced a great lob over the keeper's head, and with the ball heading towards the back of the net, Higginbotham opted to make sure it was going in by knocking it over the line.

Dale scorer

After that, there wasn't much to talk about, other than keeper Bracey tripping over his goal line when defending a corner, and then producing a wonderful dive to the floor to save a non existent shot.

A late sub saw the scorer Higginbotham replace by Will Buckley, who added a bit of confusion by wearing Kyle Buckley's squad number, but Will Buckley showed one or two useful touches when he came on, and given his age, he's certainly one to keep an eye out for.

But that's that. The pre-season is up and running, and time to get the hype machine into full swing before the time we get to Peterboro in the middle of August.