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On the other side of the touchline it was good to see our new Director of Youth Development Martin Dobson in the crowd as well as former Claret David Eyres who was sat with the last player to score a First Division goal at Turf Moor David Cross who was at that time with Coventry.
With Steve Davis and Sandy Stewart in the dug out the Clarets were soon in the ascendancy and Dutchman Remco van der Schaaf gave us the lead, hitting home when the ball dropped to him some fifteen yards from goal.
At the other end, another of the new signings Diego Penny was having little to do, and was just occasionally called upon to deal with a cross, but wasn't required to make any saves.
The game was interrupted with some quite bizarre decisions from the officials and one from the referee was ridiculous. In a routine that bordered on comedy Rochdale keeper James Spencer clashed with Owen Coyle on the edge of the box. The keeper recovered to gather the ball but as he looked to clear the referee blew. Incredibly he took the ball from the keeper, dropped it and gave it him back to clear.
Meanwhile the assistant on the stand side was having a consistent evening, certainly where offsides were concerned. It was easy to work out, if it was offside he didn't give it, if it was then he didn't.
So no surprise that he allowed Fairweather-Johnson to run clear when everyone else was looking for a flag. The lad was one-on-one with the keeper and made no mistake.
Two up and then came the third. Now I could call it a thirty yard special from Steve Jones, in fact I will as the former Crewe man delivered goal number three. He did hit his shot from that distance, and it did go in, but I'm sure keeper Spencer will not be too happy with the way he dealt with things.
Half time, 3-0 and it was just about all over. In truth the second half never really lived up to the first and at times became really scrappy, but we did finally get the fourth and this time Fairweather-Johnson was almost Walcott like as he hit home into the far bottom corner from the right of goal.
But Rochdale had the last word, scoring right at the end. The ball came back off the woodwork and the second shot was cleared by Alex-Ray Harvey. Unfortunately the assistant flagged that it had crossed the line. Did it? Given that performance tonight I'd probably suggest not.
That's two wins and a draw for Steve Davis' team and already into double figures with the goals.
The teams were;
Burnley: Diego Penny, Dan Brown, Nik Kudiersky, Chris Lynch, Alex-Ray Harvey, Theo Fairweather-Johnson (Michael King), Adam Kay, Remco van der Schaaf (Chris Anderson), Steve Jones, Owen Coyle (Wes Fletcher), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Gabor Kiraly, Dominic Knowles.
Rochdale: James Spencer, Scott Wiseman, Raphale Evans, Nathan D'Laryea, Marcus Holness, Richard Edghill, Mark Jones, Kyle Lambert, Christopher Blakley, Joe Thompson, Kallum Higginbotham. Subs: Dave Doherty, George Bowyer, Chris Brown, Robert Crank, Daniel Hanford.