Dale comfortable victors in first friendly

Photo: Jon Coluccio

Clark Keltie made his first appearance in a Dale shirt

15 More Image(s) In Gallery

Rochdale 6 (Le Fondre 4, Shaw, Buckley)
Rossendale United 0

Rochdale eased past Rossendale United in their first friendly since they returned from their pre-season training camp in Spain.

Four goals from Adam Le Fondre, and one each for new signing Jon Shaw and Will Buckley gave Dale a comfortable victory.

The large travelling support saw all of Dale’s pre-season acquisitions in action and they all performed admirably. Clark Keltie bossed the midfield alongside Ciaran Toner, while Scott Wiseman was solid at right back and Jon Shaw’s general play up front impressed and his goal will have done his confidence no harm.

Rossendale offered up no resistance to Dale’s constant attacks and by the conclusion there were only two surprises, that the visitors had not found the net more often and that manager Keith Hill did not make a swathe of substitutions as is typical of pre-season friendlies. Dale made just the one change, with Kallum Higginbotham replacing Adam Rundle at half time.

Le Fondre could have more than doubled his goals tally after missing numerous one on ones in the second half but he had to make do with three taps and a bullet second half header. Le Fondre’s first two goals, Dale’s first and third, came after spills from Rossendale keeper Lee Bracey and his hat-trick goal had a touch of fortune about it after Bracey palmed Higginbotham’s header onto the crossbar, only for Le Fondre to pounce on the rebound. There was no fortune in Le Fondre’s fourth, a perfectly timed header from Shaw’s nod back.

Sandwiched in between were goals for Shaw, a slightly deflected effort from the edge of the box, and Buckley, who skipped easily beyond his marker and fired a calm shot across Bracey into the far corner of the net.

Keith Hill was obviously pleased with his side’s professional display. He said: “We played some very good football. The players showed good footballing ability, work rate and endeavour and it’s always good to get a win on the board.

“The nil pleased me probably more than the six but hopefully Sam Russell will have more to do in the games against Stockport and Bolton next week.

“We’ll only know at the end of the season how well our pre-season went but our fitness levels are good and our Spain trip has once again paid dividends.”

Dale are next action against Stockport on Tuesday night at Spotland.