Halifax Town 1-2 Rochdale

Keith Hill’s Rochdale side continued their preparations for the new season with victory over Conference side Halifax Town.

George Donnelly opened the scoring for Dale after Halifax keeper Phil Senior fumbled an Andrew Tutte free kick. A sublime Bobby Grant goal doubled the advantage just after the break. Halifax reduced the deficit late on but Hill’s men saw the game out.

In sweltering heat at The Shay Stadium, Hill opted for a mixed team once again with Ashley Eastham the only player who played on Tuesday named in the starting 11. Trialists Rob Thomson and Lois Maynard got the chance to impress and the travelling fans from Spotland got a first look at new signing Matty Lund.

Halifax, with former Dale player Matt Pearson in their side, started brightly and perhaps should have been in front early on but Josh Wilson was wasteful with a couple of chances.

Dale took the lead in fortuitous circumstances when Senior, in the Halifax goal, failed to hold an innocuous looking free kick by Tutte with Donnelly on hand to side foot into the open net.

Bobby Grant, who had been rather anonymous throughout the first half, lit up the match with a trademark goal. Picking up wide on the right, he curled a left-footed shot around Senior to make it 2-0, earning applause from both sets of fans.

Trialist keeper Rob Thomson had a fairly quiet afternoon but had to pick the ball out of the net with 18 minutes remaining. Substitute Kevin Holsgrove outmuscled Eastham before outpacing Maynard and firing an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.

Hill's side managed the rest of the game without incident and he will have been happy with workout, if not the performance, in very hot conditions.

Next game: Stalybridge Celtic (a) Tuesday 16 July 7:30pm ko