Goals from Evil, Reidy and Dawson saw Dale beat City's reserves for the second time this season. Report online now...

Four first teamers started at Dark Lane as Dale came up against a mostly unrecognisable Manchester City side.

Rochdale: Sam Russell, George Bowyer, Craig Dawson, Raphale Evans, Josh Brizell, Ryan Kenyon (trialist), Chris Blakeley, Callum Byrne, Joe Reidy, Dennis Sherriff and Lee McEvilly.

Substitutes: Daniel Handford, Alex Mallion, Tom Buckley, Chris Brown and Robert Crank.

Manchester City: Johanson, Smith, Carter, Elabdellaoui, Varga, Paldan, Grandison, Mitchell, Redshaw, Guidetti and Helan.

Substitutes: Paris, Wood, Kapsolapados and Frater.

Dale went ahead early in the first half with Craig Dawson heading in from a corner after around 5 minutes of play.

City equalised almost immediately after as the ball took a number of deflections in the Dale penalty area before rolling past Sam Russell.

Sloppy defending allowed City to take the lead shortly after Dale failed to mark City's number nine, allowing the striker to jump unmarked and head past Russell with no trouble whatsoever.

Joe Reidy fired in a Dale equaliser as his low effort from 25 yards out beat City's goalkeeper with around half an hour of the half gone.

The first half finished 2-2, with Dale's George Bowyer and Craig Dawson picking up yellow cards before half time.

Chris Beech and David Flitcroft made one change at half time with Robert Crank replacing Dennis Sherriff.

Both teams looked to get their noses ahead half time with City coming closest early on with City's number 9 coming closest when he fired a low effort wide of Russell's near post.

Dale then made their second change of the game with trialist Ryan Kenyon was replaced by Tom Buckley with around 20 minutes left to play as we began to enjoy one of our best spells of the game.

Dale piled the pressure on as Crank and Blakeley combined to put Blackley in space, with his effort forcing a good save out of Johanson.

Johanson's save went out for a corner, which City managed to scramble away with Brizell having two shots at goal after picking up the clearance.

Brizell's first effort pretty much flattened the City lad who was unfortunate enough to get in the way of it, with the second forcing Johnason to make another save.

Dale continued to look a threat from set pieces with Craig Dawson causing City all sorts of problems as he came close to heading us in front on at least two occasions.

But it was Evil, who with only seconds of normal time remaining, dribbled past four City players, before slotting the ball under Johanson to put Dale 3-2 in front.

The result was only sealed when Russell kept out a brilliant curling effort from City's number 10, with the City lad left wondering how he didn't score.

Dale ratings: Russell 7, Bowyer 7, Evans 7, Dawson 7, Brizell 6, Kenyon 6, Byrne 6, Blakeley 7, Reidy 7, Sherriff 6, McEvilly 7.

Substitutes: Crank 7 and Buckley 6.

Photo: Action Images

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