Chris Beech's reserve side put in a solid performance with a 1-0 win over City's reserves. Report online now!

Dale named a young side against City with 'keeper James Spencer being the only player in the side with first team experience.

Manchester City: James Wood, Kingsley Grandison, Thomas Smith, Omar Elabdellaoui, Oliver Nicholas, Sean Tse, Adrian Cieslewicz, Andrew Mitchell, Jack Redshaw, John Guidetti and Craig Frater.

Substitutes: Michael Jukes, Eirik Johansen, Igor Paldin, Barna Horvath and James Paris.

Rochdale: James Spencer, Josh Brizell, David Doherty, Stuart Bath, Chris Brown, Alex Mallion, Andrew Brown, Callum Byrne, Chris Blakeley, Dennis Sherriff and Joe Reidy.

Substitutes: Daniel Taberner, Robert Crank, Joe Wright, Liam Murray and Matthew Ellis.

Both sides started the first half brightly with Dale's defensive pairing of Alex Mannion and Chris Brown winning everything in the air as City looked to make a breakthrough early on.

And they came close on two occasions, with Andrew Mitchell beating Spencer, but not the crossbar, from 25 yards.

Omar Elabdellaoui was guilty of the other miss as he somehow missed from six yards after Dale failed to clear from a City corner.

Dale's best chance of the first half fell to Dennis Sherriff who's effort went wide of James Wood's post after a mistake at the back from City.

There was also a shout for a penalty before half time as David Doherty was brought down in the City area, however the referee didn't agree.

After half time, it was all Rochdale though as strikers Blakeley and Sherriff enjoyed more possession.

Centre back Chris Brown opted for route one with, his ball falling for Chris Blakeley, who had lost his marker and was left with the simple task of putting the ball into the back of City's net. 1-0 Dale.

Blakeley was soon replaced by Crank who should have had a brace with him lobbing Wood only to see his effort go off the crossbar and his second narrowly going wide off Wood's far post.

All in all it was a solid performance by a young Dale side with every player putting in an impressive performance against their Premiership counterparts.

It was also good to see recent signing Mallion and Chris Brown looking as solid as they did at the back, with Brown being my man of the match.

Ratings: Spencer 7, Brizell 7, Doherty 7, Bath 7 (Murray 7), Chris Brown 8, Mallion 7, Andy Brown 7 (Wright 7), Byrne 7, Blakeley 8 (Crank 7), Sherriff 7, Reidy 7.

Photo: Action Images

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