Rochdale 1 - 3 Middlesborough

Rochdale continued their pre-season preparations with their final warm up game at Spotland ending in defeat for Keith Hill’s side against Championship outfit Middlesborough.

Naming a more orthodox 4-4-2 formation, Hill opted for a strong starting 11. Josh Lillis was in goal with Rafferty, Lancashire, Tanser and Done in defence. Allen, Lund, Hery and Henderson made up the midfield with Donnelly partnering new signing Calvin Andrew up front.

The visitors, fresh from a pre-season trip to Spain, named a fairly strong line-up and took the lead after just four minutes through a stunning Adam Reach volley from 18 yards.

Soon afterwards and it was 2-0 when Joe Rafferty pulled back Kike inside the area with referee Brown pointing straight to the spot. In a competitive game, the Dale defender would have certainly seen a red card brandished but the official was lenient. The Spaniard stepped up to send Lillis the wrong way from the spot.

The Dale keeper pulled off a great save from Lee Tomlins 20 yard freekick after Lancashire had pulled back the former Peterborough man.

New signing Calvin Andrew provided a perfect cross to Ian Henderson to half the deficit with just two minutes left of the first half but just seconds after the re-start, referee Brown awarded a second penalty of the game to the visitors. Lancashire seemingly made a perfect tackle but Tomlin’s theatrics earned his side the spot kick. Tomlin dusted himself down to drill the ball into the corner to end the scoring before half time.

The second half was better from Dale. Donnelly had a snap shot easily saved whilst Lund tried to curl an effort from 20 yards but didn’t get enough lift to beat former Real Madrid goalkeeper Thomas Mejias.

Middlesborough did have the ball in the net late on but it was ruled out for offside when Adomah stroked home after good work from Tomlin.

Results at this stage don’t really matter as its the workout that is the most important and with away games at Macclesfield and Bury in the next week, Hill still has time to try out different player combinations.

Attendance: 1,394

Rochdale: Lillis, Rafferty, Lancashire (c), Tanser, Done, Henderson, Lund, Hery (Vincenti 27), Allen, Donnelly, Andrew.
Subs: (not used) Diba, Bennett, McGinty, Vincenti, Barry-Murphy, Collis, Rose, Logan, Cannon, Camps, Bunney,

Middlesborough: Mejias, Atkinson (Bennett 76), Friend, Ayala, Gibson, Smallwood (Morris 76), Halliday (Adomah 76), Butterfield, Kike, Tomlin, Reach.
Subs: (not used) Burgess, Fewster, Williams, Konstantopoulos.

Referee: Mr M Brown
Assistant Referees: Mr D Benton & Mr T Bramhall
Fourth Official: Mr A Hull