Dale ran out convincing winners on Tuesday afternoon, beating Walsall 8-0 in a remarkable team performance.
Goals from Joe Wright (2), Peter Thomas (2), Ethan Brierley (2), Ethan Pye and Paul Kyffin ensured a comfortable victory which sees Dale now unbeaten since December.
It was Wright who opened the scoring when he converted following some good work from Jordan Scanlon down the right-hand side.
Louie Clarkson then found Louie Chorlton with an exquisite pass with the latter cutting the ball back for Thomas to double Dale’s lead.
Wright doubled his tally from a free-kick, curling round the wall and into the bottom corner with the Walsall ‘keeper rooted to the spot.
After the restart, Thomas scored his second when a poor clearance from the goalkeeper allowed him to loft the ball over the Walsall stopper as he was scampering back towards his goal.
Wright nearly scored his hat-trick when he cut in from the left before unleashing a powerful shot towards goal which cannoned back out off the crossbar.
Ethan Pye scored Dale’s fifth after heading home from a corner.
Then, Brierley tried his luck from distance but his shot hit the bar and went behind.
Brierley got his goal minutes later – substitute Adam Cullen floated a cross in for midfielder to head home into the bottom corner.
Dale got their seventh three minutes from time, Brierley once again on the scoresheet, this time finishing low into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Cullen got another assist when he set up fellow substitute Paul Kyffin who slotted the ball under the Walsall goalkeeper to make it eight.
There was still time for Brierley to go close once more, hitting the woodwork for the second time with Chorlton firing the rebound just wide.
It was a comfortable three points for Dale who got the goals their performance richly deserved with a clean sheet to go with it.
Chris Brown’s side are next in action on Saturday when they travel to Shrewsbury Town with kick-off at 12:00.
Dale XI | Kelly, Chorlton, Kinsella, Pye, Sutton, Nock, Clarkson, Brierley, Scanlon, Thomas, Wright.
Subs | Chalton, Lee, Kershaw, Cullen, Kyffin.