Since making his league debut for Barnsley in the 2003/04 season, Dale found it hard to break into the Oakwell first team on a regular basis, and took the opportunity to sign for Rotherham in May 2007.

In his first full season at the club Dale became a first team regular making 31 starts at either full back or in a more advanced midfield role.

He shot to prominence during the 2008/2009 campaign displacing Mark Lynch at right-back with a string of impressive performances which included goals against Macclesfield and in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy win over Leicester City.

His progress over the past two seasons has been severely hampered through a string of injuries, which included two serious metatarsal breaks which ruled him out for a large chunk of last season.

Once recovered Dale was back to his best and a run of 12 consecutive starts at the back end of last season resulted in a new two-year deal.