Nearly six hundred Dale supporters felt equally and headed down the 50mph zone, sometimes known as the M6 for what was many the first bit of Dale football of the new decade.

Dale were hit with an early blow, with the news that the returning Will Buckley wasn't returning after all, and whilst it prompted all sorts of conspiracy theories amongst the 600 strong Dale support, it was simply a case that Buckley had picked up a knock in the warm up and with such riches amongst our armoury, it just wouldn't be worthwhile to even think about risking such a player, and we gave a league debut to new loan signing Andew Haworth in his place.

We got off to a great start, and we must have touched the ball 20 times before the visitors had even got a sniff. I even had visions of Cheltenham's first touch being to kick off after we'd taken the lead, but that opening attack came to nothing.

Following that, the home side looked alright. They weren't the chumps that their league table suggested they were and whilst they weren't coming out with clear cut chances, there was enough to suggest that one could fall their way. Alsop, as always, took grief about the size of his waistline, but if truth be told, I've never seen him look as trim, and the completely laughable return to League football seemed perfectly justified.

Alsop's presence was what you'd expect it to be, as he specialised in being the most awkward opponent we're likely to face all season, but Dawson's dealing with him added yet another string to his ever impressive bow. The visitors put over some decent balls into the Dale box, but our defence were on top form ensuring that each one was a simple collection for Tom Heaton, who may or may not have been making his last appearance for the club (which I suppose you could say about any of them).

The new lad Andrew Haworth's performance in that first half showed bags and bags of potential. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of disgruntled supporters and managers across the division at this signing. Have we not got enough good players as it is? The signing of Haworth is akin to Bill Gates winning the lottery on a rollover weekend. It's just not fair. For them.

In fairness to the lad, it took him a while to get into the game, but when you consider that he probably had about twenty minutes to prepare himself for his League debut, and he's had at most one training session with his new team. But on the evidence of what we witnessed at Whaddon Road, he's a superstar in the making and it would be going through the motions to even suggest "sign him up".

Bags of pace, very quick feet and more tricks than Debbie McGhee's bottom drawer, he's destined for big things. He had one effort that had us airborne in premature celebration as we thought he'd given us the lead. He cut in from the touchline, leaving his opponents mere admirers, and from inside the box, he let fly with the keeper a beaten man.  Fortunately for the Robins, it came crashing off the far post much to the relief of the keeper. It was a sign of things to come.

And so it proved, for within a minute or two of that chance, we went a stage further and grabbed the lead. It was the Two Chris's show again, with Dagnall this time the provider. He beat a couple of men on the far touchline before giving it to O'Grady. In that wonderful way of his, O'Grady pinched a yard of space out of nothing, before firing a low drive into the back of the net to give Dale the lead.

That lead was nearly doubled not long after, when Chris Dagnall did his Lionel Messi bit, and had us airborne in premature celebration once again. It took a superb save to deny his volley which had goal written all over it. If he was more Da Vinci than Dagnall on Tuesday according to the Aldershot press lot, then you wonder what there is left for us to compare him to. Artists? Philosophers? Greek gods?

At half time, the lead didn't seem complete. We'd had the best three or four chances of the half, but there was more than enough from them to suggest that a chance might fall for the home side. They may have felt a little aggrieved to be trailing as the balance of play had been fairly even, but reality had it that our ability to make half chances into golden opportunities had been the difference between the sides. It's the difference between hoping for something to happen, and making something happen.

Hope was all that they'd had. And in the second half, they didn't even have that.

The second half was as one sided as you are likely to see, with all three points secured whilst some were still returning to their seats after the half time interval. The half kicked off in a slightly subdued way, with almost a lack of realisation that the game had started again, but within a minute or two, we were all out of our seats once again in celebration.

It was Haworth who was the orchestrator, as he weaved his way down the left wing in front of the Dale supporters, and rather than beat his man, he put in an early ball which was one of those Ronaldihno moments as his cross caught everyone out by causing the keeper all sorts of bother. The keeper managed somehow to get a touch on it to prevent any "Was it a cross or a shot?" arguments, but Chris O'Grady proved yet again that fantastic instinct of his to be in the right place at just the right time, and he was left with a simple tap in to put us two up. He opted against the tap in and tried taking the net off from about three yards out.

Feeling greedy? Well a couple of minutes later, we made it three in that all so predictable style. It does make you wonder what clubs do when preparing to play us. Does it not cross their mind that if we've got a young defender who's scored for fun from set pieces all season, that he might be worth marking . Or is the boy Dawson simply unplayable from set pieces?

Either way, Dawson followed the ball in from the corner perfectly as he always does, and whilst his initial effort was saved in vain by the keeper, the rebound (which may or may not have been intentional) saw the ball land over the line, and Dawson headed to the Dale supporters to celebrate with the face of Nosferatu. Game over.

Forget the talk about Dawson equalling John Bramhall's mid 80's double figure goal tally. Dawson has scored more goals for the club already than many strikers have done, in far fewer games, and we suspect it won't be long before we're suggesting that he'd have been top scorer in plenty of other seasons.

From that point on, it was game over, and the time in reports where we usually start coming out with the lines like Footballing to Death. Such is the frequency of such beatings of opposition, that footballing to death is fast becoming just another cliché. But it will always remain my favourite cliché, and there was no finer way of describing what happened in the second half.

It was ridiculous from now on. The home side's occasional foray's into the our half was usually finished off with much guffawing amongst the travelling support, whilst we knocked the ball about at will, picking holes all over the place. I'm sure we've said it before, but had we needed to score double figures, I think we'd have got them.

There was to be no let up and following a knock to Thompson, Higginbotham came on and showed exactly why people are talking about him in such glowing terms right now. Twelve months ago, he was on the scrap heap as we awaited his contract to run out. Now, he is completely rejuvenated and as vital as any of them.

We had the home side run ragged, and there were at least a couple of occasions where decisions went against us and you felt that the referee was genuinely feeling sorry for them, not wishing to allow us to inflict further misery upon them.

For the last few minutes, it showed just what a player that we have in Chris O'Grady. With two goals to his name, and the potential for the first hat trick of his career, it seemed that O'Grady was more intent on ensuring that his strike partner Chris Dagnall joined him on the scoresheet rather than his own personal glory.

We thought we had it when we made it four when one late move saw the ball end up in the back of the net as we queued up to score, but somewhere deep inside the move, the linesman spotted one of our players offside. We were attacking with that many players against one seemed to be a one man defence at times, that it was inevitable that someone somewhere would stray offside.

There was the briefest of brief scares, when Cheltenham stole our clean sheet in injury time, when a deflected cross ended up at the feet of their centre half Townsend and he fired from about ten yards out. There was just the merest hint that a second consolation could launch a grandstand finish, but in those circumstances, there's only one thing to do and that's put it beyond reach.

And it was left to O'Grady to do so. Having tried to be the provider, this time he went in on a solo effort and his curled effort took a deflection before hitting the net, giving us a 4th goal, three points for the team and a match ball for him to take back up the M6.

As O'Grady completed his hat trick, news trickled in that Oldham had failed to score again, and you can bet your bottom pound that similar news of O'Grady's goalscoring feat was being discussed as supporters of the Latics made their way out of Boundary Park. Since joining Dale, Oldham have scored just twenty goals in the same time it has taken O'Grady to grab fifteen single handedly, and if its true that the career of managers live or die by such decisions, then Dave Penney must be expecting the dreaded phone call any day now.

But the crises of others are not ours to worry about. In fact, the news of a late goal conceded by Bournemouth made those faces just that little bit smugger as left Whaddon Road with a lead of nine points at the top of the division, and yet another four goal haul to our name. Have we really reached the stage where four goals away from home has become par for the course?

We are being truly spoilt right now, and I do hope that nobody is taking any of this for granted, for to do so wouldn't allow you to fully appreciate what wonderful times we are experiencing.

It can only be a matter of time before we starting saying "when" rather than "if".