Rochdale 1-0 Blackburn Rovers

A late Joe Thompson goal was enough to see John Coleman’s new look Rochdale side to victory over Championship side Blackburn Rovers in Dale’s first pre-season game at Spotland.

Coleman gave a 45 minute run out for all his squad, including the 4 trialists who travelled to the recent training camp in Austria.

Rovers boss Steve Kean named his full squad for the trip to Spotland, which included his new signings Portuguese international Nuno Gomes and fellow countrymen Edinho and Paulo Jorge, who only signed earlier in the day.

The visitors created the first chance of the game when Nunes shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area.

Dale’s first chance came via the head of Phil Edwards but the ball looped off target.

Formica had a deflected shot go wide just after the half hour mark but it was Dale who came closest to scoring moments later. Tenacious play from Jason Kennedy saw him steal the ball in midfield before feeding Donnelly, who from 30 yards turned and fired a ferocious shot that had Robinson scrambling to his right, but the ball went agonisingly wide.

Coleman changed all of his outfield players for the second half with all 4 trialists taking to field alongside new signing Rhys Bennett. Youngsters Luke Watson and Sam Minhan also started the second period.

Dale were lucky to keep 11 men on the field shortly before the hour mark. Josh Lillis raced out of his area but was beaten to the ball by Goodwillie with the Dale stopper handling the ball. Referee Haywood waved play on as Rovers had the advantage but a timely interception from first year pro Sam Minihan kept the score level.

Fellow first year pro Luke Watson was next to shine when he cleared a Nunes shot, that had evaded Lillis, off the line.

Dale’s new look second half team started to get into a rhythm. Trialists Danny Johnson and Ray Putterill had chances but it was old boy Joe Thompson who finally broke the deadlock. Great work from Reece Gray gave him space to lift the ball into the area to Thompson who chipped former Dale loanee keeper Jake Kean for 1-0.

The rest of the game was played out at a slower pace as both teams enjoyed the workout.

Results don’t really matter at this stage but Coleman will have been happy to keep a clean sheet against a team that will be expecting to be competing at the top end of the Championship this season.

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Rochdale: (First half team):Lillis, McIntyre, P Edwards (trialist), R Edwards, Rafferty, Barry-Murphy, Cavanagh (c), Tutte, Kennedy, Donnelly, Grimes.
(Second half team): Lillis, Minihan, Byrne (c), Bennett, Pearson (trialist), Watson, Putterill (trialist), Thompson, Craney (trialist), Johnson (trialist), Gray (Abadaki 70)

Blackburn: Robinson (Kean), Givet, Dann (Henley), Ribeiro (Petrovic), Murphy (c) (Jorge), Lowe, Morris (Hanley), Nunes (Olsson), Formica (Rochina), Goodwillie (Edinho), Gomes (Dunn)

Referee: M Haywood
Ass Ref: R Wooton & M Dwyer
Fourth Official: N Gibbons

ATT: 1375