Dale earned their first point of the season with a 1-1 draw at home to Scunthorpe United.

After a goalless opening period, half-time substitute Steven Davies opened the scoring with a header nine minutes into the second half.

The Iron levelled matters nine minutes later though through Duane Holmes, and that’s the way the scoring finished.

There was one change from Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup win over Mansfield Town, with Jamie Allen replacing Jordan Williams.

Dale enjoyed more of the possession throughout the first half, but it was Josh Lillis who was the busier of the two goalkeepers in the early exchanges.

He denied Josh Morris one-on-one from close range after the Scunthorpe man had got the better of Reece Brown, before comfortably holding on to a long range effort and a weak header, both from Kevin Van Veen.

Neal Bishop avoided a yellow card after a late challenge from behind on Ollie Rathbone, and moments later he supplied a great cross for Conor Townsend who headed over from eight yards out.

Callum Camps was Dale’s stand-out player in a relatively quiet first half, and he saw a powerful effort deflected over the crossbar midway through the first half.

Funso Ojo sent a dipping effort narrowly over the crossbar from distance for the visitors, before a Paddy Madden lob forced Lillis to stretch high in order to catch the ball.

A driving run from Camps in added time led to a fizzing effort from Brown being blocked out for a throw-in, as the first half ended goalless.

Steven Davies replaced Jamie Allen at the break, and he was involved in the first effort of the second half when Matty Done brought a low save from former Dale stopper Matthew Gilks.

Niall Canavan met a Rathbone corner, and his deflected header clipped the bar on its way back down before being turned behind for a corner.

From the resulting corner Dale did take the lead. Ian Henderson flicked on Rathbone’s near post delivery, straight into the path of Davies steaming in at the far post, who headed into the back of the net.

The substitute had made an immediate impact, and was denied twice by Gilks shortly afterwards. His first effort was comfortably held, before he pounced on a loose ball 25 yards from goal and struck first time, forcing Gilks into an acrobatic tip over the crossbar.

It proved an important save, as the visitors equalised in the 63^rd minute. A cute ball behind the Dale defence was latched onto by substitute Duane Holmes, who slipped the ball under the out-rushing Lillis.

Ojo sent an effort from distance narrowly wide as the Iron enjoyed their best spell of the game.

Done and Rathbone were replaced by Andy Cannon and Calvin Andrew inside the last 20 minutes as Keith Hill used his full complement of substitutions.

Hakeeb Adelakun and Holmes both had efforts held by Lillis inside the final ten minutes for the visitors, whilst Canavan headed over a deep Camps corner three minutes from time.

The final chance of the game fell Dale’s away via free-kick 22 yards from goal, which was curled wide by Davies.