Accrington Stanley 1, Rochdale 1

ACCRINGTON produced their most impressive display of the pre-season against Third Division Rochdale, who fielded a full first team.

The Reds preparations for their UniBond Premier campaign seem to be going well while a similar Rochdale side will now face Burnley on Friday night at Spotland.

The Dale had the better scoring chances in the first half with veteran Tony Ford MBE forcing Jamie Speare into a good save after only four minutes.

Eight minutes later Speare made an even better stop to deny former Preston striker Tony Ellis making a superb reflex save.

On 16 minutes a misdirected header by former Rovers player Keith Hill fell into the path of Reds' Steve Carragher but his well-struck shot was deflected off defender David Bayliss for a corner.

Five minutes before the break Jonathan Smith and Jimmy Bell combined well to create an opening for former Rochdale striker Michael Holt, released from Spotland in the summer, but his fierce volley from 20 yards was just over the crossbar.

Stanley took the lead on 62 minutes when they were awarded a free kick 22 yards out. Steve Hollis stepped up and spectacularly curled his left foot shot round the Rochdale wall and into the top corner of the net.

But Rochdale grabbed a last gasp equaliser came just three minutes from time as Wayne Evans crossed from the right for Dale new boy Paul Ware to head the ball beyond Speare.