Dale crashed to a 2-1 defeat to Halifax at a sunny Shay.

It was a glorious evening in West Yorkshire as we drove across the Tour De France route to watch the second game in our preseason campaign. It was a much stronger side that Keith Hill played in comparison to the team that travelled to Fylde, but it was still short of a recognised full first team.

Formation wise it wasn't the easiest to pick out, other than playing three central defenders, one of which was Brian Barry-Murphy. The starting eleven was: Lillis, Lancashire, Barry-Murphy, McGinty, Rose, Vincenti, Lund, Henderson, Done, Bunney, Donnelly.

After a decent start, we fell behind to a deflected shot that offered Lillis no chace. After that, it was pretty much the home side for the remainder of the half. We didn't have too many chances. The most memorable moment from the half was a McGinty clearance that smacked Matty Done in the head from about two yards away knocking him off his feet. Wasn't quite Chris Brass, but it'll replayed to death on YouTube if someone's got it.

Second half was more of the same and by the time that Halifax doubled their lead, it had been coming for a while and they were good value for their lead. The second goal came when a shot was turned in from within the six yard box.

The only bright spark for Dale came with the introduction of Callum Camps. The youngster created more in his twenty minute cameo than his team mates had done all game. There's a real desire from him to get on the ball and make things happen.

We had a goal rightly disallowed when Vincenti was offside before heading home, but we got ourselves on the scoresheet in the last minute when Donnelly combined well to give Camps his second goal in as many games.

Positives? Camps' late show and Matty Done's hard working performance down the left.

Photo: Action Images

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