MARK Jones has played his way into the reckoning for Rochdale's trip to London where Keith Hill's men take on Barnet in the first round of the FA Cup.

Welsh international Jones arrived at Spotland in August with a big reputation but having missed out on pre-season training with Dale, he then suffered a hamstring injury which delayed his introduction to the first team.

The former Wrexham player put that right with a promising display in the 1-0 Johnstone's Paint Trophy defeat at Scunthorpe this week and will be hoping to play a part at Underhill.

"The midweek game represented a chance to give a debut to Mark Jones and he showed what an asset he can be for us," said Hill. "He offers us something different and though he has had a stop-start career here, he is getting his match fitness up now.

"We can take great heart from the way we played on the night and though we are disappointed to be out of the competition, we can now prepare for what should be a cracking FA Cup tie at Barnet and go into it with our usual confidence."

Chris Dagnall, Lee Thorpe, Gary Jones and Adam Rundle are all expected to return to the starting line-up for the weekend's cup clash, while Jon Shaw (hamstring) and Simon Ramsden (calf) are well down the road to recovery.

Key opponent: Albert Adomah - young forward scored last time out

Prediction: Barnet 0 Rochdale 1 - If Dale play to their potential they should progress

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