ROSS Thorpe claims that the EVO-STIK Northern Premier League, Division One South has already proved its unpredictability in the opening two games of the 2015-16 campaign ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Spalding United.

Only Coalville Town and Stocksbridge Park Steels have taken maximum points in the opening week of the season and the 34-year-old believes that trend is likely to continue throughout the year.

Thorpe said: “If you look at the results so far, there’s been plenty of games where you’ve looked at the result and thought that’s a surprise.

“Let’s take Rugby Town for instance. They lose 6-1 at Loughborough Dynamo on the opening day then claimed a narrow victory against Gresley on Tuesday night. You can’t predict what will happen.

“It’s about fine lines. We could all say we should have at least four points on the board right now but the bottom line is that we haven’t.”

But the former Alvechurch boss insists there are plenty of positives to take for his Dale players to take into tomorrow’s game in Lincolnshire, adding: “Spalding is a tough place to go but we have the players and quality to hurt them.

“We created chances on Tuesday at Newcastle and should have put at least two of them in the back of the net. Chris (Rabone) and Demetri (Brown) both had good opportunities on the night.

“All in all we played well, the lads are working extremely hard and we need a bit of luck to go our way. The games come thick and fast and we need to keep working hard on the training field to reap the rewards on match day.”