Rochdale will welcome Championship side Middlesbrough to Spotland on Saturday for the last of three scheduled home pre-season friendly fixtures.
Dale have so far come up against Wigan Athletic (2-1) and Bolton Wanderers (0-2) at Spotland as Keith Hill prepares for the forthcoming League One season.
Ahead of the weekend's match, we take a brief look at our opponents...
LAST SEASON
League position: Middlesbrough finished the season in 12th place in the table
Top scorer: Albert Adomah (12 goals)
THE MANAGER
Aitor Karanka
He was appointed Head Coach at Middlesbrough last November following the departure of Tony Mowbray.
The 41-year-old was formerly the assistant manager to Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, but left the Bernabeu last summer after the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti.
Karanka also played for Real Madrid and was capped once by Spain.
WE’VE MET BEFORE…
The last encounter between the two sides was a friendly match in April 1988.
The Football League had a arranged a tournament at Wembley to celebrate its Centenary. 16 clubs who had shown the best league form over a set number of games were invited to the tournament – Dale and
Boro were not amongst them.
With a free weekend, Middlesbrough faced Dale on the Friday night, emerging as 3-0 winners.
You can read more about this game, as well as much more, in our matchday programme, which is on sale now, priced at £2.
PRE-SEASON SO FAR
Middlesbrough have just returned from a pre-season trip to Spain, where they began their preparations for their Championship campaign with three games against Spanish and Portuguese opposition.
They lost their opening match, but went on to record a 4-0 victory over Real Balompedica Linense and 5-0 win over Atletico Clube de Portugal, respectively.
You can read what Aitor Karanka had to say ahead of the visit to Spotland by clicking HERE.
TRANSFER NEWS
Summer additions so far have included the permanent signing of goalkeeper Tomas Mejias from Real Madrid. The stopper had spent a spell on loan at Boro last season, arriving at the Riverside in January. He penned a two-year-deal at the club last month.