The talking came to an end and it was time for the football to do the speaking. But both teams had to settle for a point in an otherwise entertaining goalless draw.

And so for the first time since we played Halifax in April 1974, Third Tier football returned to Spotland, with the old foes Hartlepool United being the visitors. Not far off 4,000 turned up at Spotland with 500 or so coming down from the North East.

Dale lined up very much as expected. Arguably, with the exception of the newly arrived Elding, it was the only starting eleven that Keith Hill can put out at the moment, as we lined up with the 2010-11 version of Team Rochdale which sees us line up with a 4-3-3 formation.

There were four debuts in the Dale side, with Lillis, Barry-Murphy, Widdowson and JLAA all coming in for their first Dale game and a first appearance on the subs bench for the wonderfully named Helios Andre.

Before the game started, we had the minute’s silence for Stan Milburn.  As minute’s silences go, it was spoilt through a mixture of applause, late arriving Hartlepool fans and those trying to be clever in response to them., and perhaps summed up exactly why it has to be a minute’s applause rather than silence which is a real shame.

In my opinion, we started rather nervously – certainly more so than had this been a game played in the middle of October, and the visitors very nearly came close to taking advantage. In fact, Pools could have grabbed a couple of goals during the early stages if truth be told, and it was only a combination of excellent goalkeeping by (second time round) debutant Lillis and some blocking by both the Dale defence and the Hartlepool forwards prevented them taking the lead.

There were chances for Brown, Gamble and Monkhouse all within this opening few minutes, and we really struggled to play the ball out of our own half.

But the nerves settled, and thanks primarily to a rolling back the years performance by Gary Jones, we managed to get to grips with the game. Jonah was everywhere, and his programme comments about feeling more like 23 than 33 looked to be spot on. 

He was a dominant driving force, and he sparked off the first Dale attack of the game. Some great work by JLAA down, manoeuvring his way into the Hartlepool box down the dead ball line, but Jonah’s effort was down the throat of the Pools keeper Flinders.

A better effort followed soon after when he linked well with Joe Thompson, and with Hartlepool on the back foot, Thompson pulled the ball back to Jonah rather than shoot himself, but Jonah’s effort was well saved by Flinders again.

He even had the opportunity to shoot from just inside the Hartlepool half, with the Pools keeper stranded after a clearance hit the back of a defender, but the less said about this chance the better.

At times the football played by Dale was wonderful to watch, and it was difficult to keep up such was the movement.

As we progressed towards the half time whistle, the visitors came back into the game with a couple of late efforts. One required a good save by Lillis whilst the other required work for the ball boys only. 

The second half saw a change from the visitors in terms of personnel and also a slight change in tactics which seemed to do the trick, because for the majority of the second half, we didn’t threaten half as much as we had done in the opening period.

Out of the two sides, it was Hartlepool who looked the more likely to score, and they looked exceptionally dangerous from corners. One fantastic rush out from Lillis aside, they won a number of free headers, and it was panic stations on a couple of occasions. Lillis again provided a super save tipping one long range effort over the bar, and another needed clearing off the line with Lillis well beaten.

Hartlepool were certainly looking the more likely of the two sides to break the deadlock, and even the introduction of Anthony Elding failed to offer any more of an attacking threat for Dale. We weren’t exactly holding on, as Jason Kennedy was providing excellent work from a defensive point of view as he dropped deep, but he failed to make any impact of our own as we attacked towards the Pearl Street End of the ground.

But in the final moments, we found something else in our locker and could have grabbed a late winner. As the minutes ticked away, Scott Wiseman seemed to have a turn of pace beyond anyone on the pitch and he raced down the right hand side, beating player after player but his shot failed to trouble Flinders late on.

But after four minutes of injury time, the proceedings were called to an end, and few could argue that the draw wasn’t the fair result.  We certainly hadn’t done enough to win the game, and out the two sides, it was Pools who were probably nearer to snatching it, but it’s a point on the board, just as we got on the opening day of last season.

The step up to League One was clear enough. We had two mobile sides out there, and Hartlepool were certainly more organised and dangerous than the vast majority of the sides that we played last season. As was suggested by one of the pundits during the week, any mistakes will be capitalised on more than ever before, and 

But whilst there may been some fine tuning required, the positives certainly outweighed the negatives, and the fact that we were the only one of the promoted sides to get a point on the opening day of the season should not be ignored. The change of division and the change of formation has not resulted in a change in footballing philosophy. I think we’re going to like it here.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters