As we left Bloomfield Road to head to a local watering to suffer another abject England performance a frozen steward commented, "isn't great to have him back?", obviously he was referring to Brett Ormerod not a certain Mr Beckham who will no doubt dominate the back pages on Thursday morning.

Ormerod along with first team hopefuls Jermaine Wright, Claus Jorgensen, Francesco Carratta, Stephen Crainey and Joe Martin watched by Tony Parkesand Steve Thompson proved far too strong for a inexperienced Rochdale side which contained just one recognised professional.

It was the Seasiders and Ormerod who got things under way, the popular striker time his run to perfection to spring the offside trap and unleash an unstoppable finish past the advancing James Spencer, less than ten minutes later Ormerod had the ball in the net for a second time, only to see the portly linesman in front of the sparsely populated West Stand rule his effort out for off-side.

Francesco Carratta making his debut in English football looked composed on the ball with a series of excellent passes and on 21 minutes the Belgian whipped over a great cross from the right which Danny Mitchley headed just over, moments later, Stuart Green, playing his first game since tearing his hamstring at Torquay cut in from the wing only to fire straight at the keeper with the goal at his mercy.

Danny Mitchley almost doubled Pool's lead on 24 minutes when he volleyed an exquisite through ball from Jermaine Wright straight at the keeper, the ball fell back out to Mitchley who looked set to score before being dumped to the ground by Christopher Brown, despite the protests of those in Tangerine Mr Wright waved away the protests and Rochdale scrambled clear.

The half hour mark saw Pool squander another glorious opportunity, Francesco Carratta burst forward from midfield to get on the end of a Joe Martin cross, but the former Antwerp man could only see his finish whistle just wide of the post.

However, two minutes later Pool made it 2-0 when Claus Jorgensen crashed home a free kick from 25 yards following a foul on Carratta.

The tie was over as a contest three minutes from the beak, when Brett Ormerod got on the end of a long punt forward to calmly slot past the advancing keeper.

The opening stages of the second half remained a one way contest with Stuart Green and Stephen Crainey coming close to adding to the scoring.

After twenty minutes of the second period Pool made a triple change with Louis Almond, Steven Ralston and Ben Fishwick replacing Brett Ormerod, Stephen Crainey and Claus Jorgensen.

Pool had a great chance to make it 4-0 on 72 minutes when Joe Martin whipped in a teasing cross from the left, Danny Mitchley almost got on the end for what would have been a deserved goal, but the young striker was inches away from connecting.

Five minutes later Rochdale pulled one back Daniel Neary made the most of a defensive slip by skipper Ashton Bayliss to fire beyond the unfortunate Halstead. Six minutes later Andrew Brown made things interesting when he fired home from the edge of the area, however normal service was restored when Stuart Green fired home another great ball from Jermaine Wright.

Pool: Halstead, Wright, Bayliss, Eastham, Crainey (Ralston 65), Green, Carratta, Jorgensen (Fishwick 65), Martin, Mitchley, Ormerod (Almond 65) Subs Not Used: Newsham, Breakell