Harrison Hopper says the Youth Team put in a brilliant performance to beat Preston North End 6-1 on Saturday.
Dale were 5-0 up at half-time, thanks to goals from Hopper, Fabio Tavares, James Neild and a brace from Florian Yonsian, before Hopper added another towards the end of the second-half.
“It was brilliant, from start to finish,” said Hopper.
“Preston are second, with us, in the league, and we blew them away by half-time. Everyone was excellent.
“At the start of the season we were creating a lot of chances and playing really well, but we weren’t putting the chances away. In the first-half, our finishing was really good and our all-round play was really good as well.
“Hopefully we can keep it up. We’re in the same position as last year and we went on to win the league, so we just need to keep going.”
Hopper scored his first two goals of the season, getting on the end of two crosses from left-back Joe Dunne.
“Joe [Dunne] has got a great delivery, so whenever he’s looking to cross the ball I know I can gamble and get across my man because I know he can pick me out.
“I’m trying to add more goals to my game. I only scored three last year, so that’s something I’m trying to add. Timing my runs into the box, arriving on it, rather than being too early or too late.”
Dale are back in action on Tuesday at home to Burton Albion in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup North, having won their opening game of the competition against Fleetwood Town.
“We want to keep winning and see how far we can go – hopefully we can win the cup. We got knocked out quite early last year, so that’s something we want to improve on.”