They played good, energetic football, and they caused us one or two worries during the first half, but we did enough to lead at half time, and the second half was a matter of cruise control.

We had just the one change from last week with Simon Whaley coming in for Thompson. Perhaps a little harsh on JT that, but you don't bring in players of the quality of Whaley to have him sat on the bench.

Hereford came to Spotland, with apparently their 28th and 29th player of the season within their ranks, such has been the turnaround of players during their opening eight games. Form hadn't been great for John Trewick's men, but with a win over Accrington last Saturday, there'd been hopes that the current bunch of loanees could match the achievements of their last bunch of loanees in 2007-8.

We started well, something which is becoming a regular attribute for Dale this season as we took the game to the visitors from the opening whistle. We were probably a little more direct than usual in the opening stages as we looked to rid ourselves of the tag of not taking advantage of all the possession that we enjoyed.

We had what looked to me to be a clear shout for a penalty in the opening minute or so of the game when Will Buckley was pushed over in the box. Perhaps had the challenge took place later in the game, the referee might have been braver to award the spot kick.

It was entertaining stuff from both sides, with Dale certainly having the better of events, with striker Chris O'Grady causing all sorts of problems for the Bulls' defence.

Eventually, we took the lead and there was a hint of last week's trip to Northampton about the game's opening goal, as the move started with Chris Dagnall receiving a challenge on the edge of the box which could have seen him awarded a spot kick.

This time it was Gary Jones who took the ball off him taking the ball to the byeline before cutting in. His cross was partially saved by the Hereford keeper but it was spilled straight to Dagnall who'd got himself in the right place at the right time to knock it into the back of the net to put him just one goal short of his League total for last season.

With our one goal lead, the script had it that we'd be able to knock it around at will, and pick them off one by one, but as we said last week, we don't do scripts at Rochdale and the goal proved to be the wake up call for the visitors.

It's not often that we see Tom Kennedy being given a runaround at this level, but thats what we had during the first half, as he came up against one of the trickiest opponents he'll face all season. Marshall had pace to die for, and despite an earlier warning sign, he went past the former Bury man to slide it through for another former Bury man in Marc Pugh to tap home at the back post to equalise for John Trewick's men.

Things weren't going our own way at this stage of the game and whilst it wasn't quite a case of panic stations, it required a couple of great saves by Kenny Arthur to keep us on a even keel.

One deflected shot was heading straight from the top corner before Arthur's hands collected it, and not long after, it took the slightest of touches from Arthur's gloves to successfully push the ball wide of the post, and even more successfully winning us a goal kick in the process.

Fans were looking forward to half time at this stage, with a chance to regroup but arguably against the run of play, the breakthrough came.

Throughout the Hillcroft era, one of the few criticisms aimed in the direction of the team is that we never score from corners. That was put right as with seconds of the first half remaining, we did exactly that. Apart from it was Hereford's corner.

As with their two previous corners, it was completely toothless and cleared with ease, and our rare for us tactic of leaving someone up front worked a treat as Chris Dagnall raced forward with the ball.

As all of Hereford's attention went towards the scorer of our opening goal, Dagnall's attention turned towards Simon Whaley who was tearing down the middle. Daggers' ball was inch perfect and Whaley was never going to miss from there. 2-1 to Dale, though it was questionable at this stage whether it was a deserved lead.

But had there been any questions about the first half, there was none about the second as the visitors ran out of steam and failed to cause us any problems at all in the second period.

I suppose with the game remaining at 2-1 for so long, there was always the risk that the side who spent last season in League One might force their way back into the game, but I'm struggling to think of any chances that the Bulls forced in the second half, and their main first half threat of Marshall seemed to have run out of all steam giving TK a much easier time of things.

Dale always looked the more likely to the two sides to get back on the scoresheet, and Dale fans were left scratching their heads at one stage trying to fathom how we hadn't actually scored at one point, as a scramble saw the ball saved on the line and a Buckley effort somehow rebounding off the woodwork.

Buckley and Dagnall combined brilliantly at one point, with some precision passing, but an inexcusably late and most probably incorrect flag from the linesman prevented Dagnall from adding to his first half tally as his initial shot was saved by the keeper. With play like that, we were almost impossible to live with and we'd have caused problems for many a side.

Our play was most definitely deserving of a goal at this stage, as our fitness levels left our opponents chasing shadows. But it wasn't just Hereford who tired, loanee Simon Whaley found the going tough in the second half and he was replaced by Joey Thompson with around fifteen minutes to go.

But the game was put beyond Hereford by the same man who secured last week's win. Will Buckley's effort at Northampton last week had style, skill, grace and intelligence. This week, he just had to bundle it over the line. Good job they all count.

Having scored from a corner in the first half in a somewhat unconventional way, we did it properly with ten minutes to go. A Dagnall header was saved on the line by the Bulls keeper, but again the rebound went straight to a Dale player, and Buckley simply had to be there to ensure Dale grabbed the third goal of the afternoon and secure the victory.

And just to reinforce that we're doing things better than last season, we scored again from a corner just a couple of minutes later. And with Rory McArdle approaching fitness again, Craig Dawson put in a little reminder to Keith Hill that if need be, he can play as a striker, as he controlled the ball brilliantly from the corner, before turning and blasting home in a manner that would please any forward at this level.

We even had the rather unusual site of a worked up Scott Wiseman at one stage. He'd gone on a cross field run and finished off with a strong challenge on one of the Hereford lot. His opponent clearly felt aggrieved by the challenge, appearing to kick out. Wiseman was not a happyman and he reacted angrily to it.

By the last five minutes, we were rampant and our guests were holding on, praying for that full time whistle. Their first half energy had been sucked out of them and they looked in danger of conceding every time they saw a wave of blue and black heading in their direction.

Indeed, with time ticking away, it was a case of everythings gone green, as Hereford captain Ryan Green produced a clumsy challenge, sorry another clumsy challenge on Chris O'Grady and he knew his fate was sealed straight away. He was removing his captain's armband before the referee had even brought out his red card. His dismissal put him out of his misery.

There was still time for Dale to threaten but we were forced to settle for four goals and the moments of worry created by Hereford earlier in the game were by now a very distant memory.

This was another highly impressive Dale performance that was purring by the end, and once again those selecting a man of the match had several candidates from whom to pick as many Dale players had outstanding games.

This looks as balanced a Dale side that I've seen in a very long time, and the ability to keep this current squad together will have a very large say in how much of a part we play in the push at the top of the division.

It's very early on in proceedings but this is a team in every sense of the word put together from a squad that all of a sudden is looking very strong indeed, and first team stalwarts such as McArdle, Toner and Rundle are going to find it very difficult to get anywhere close to a first team return.