[SOLVED] Counting the number of deleted rows in a SQL Server stored procedure

In SQL Server 2005, is there a way of deleting rows and being told how many were actually deleted?

I could do a select count(*) with the same conditions, but I need this to be utterly trustworthy.

My first guess was to use the @@ROWCOUNT variables - but that isn't set, e.g.

delete 
from mytable 
where datefield = '5-Oct-2008' 

select @@ROWCOUNT

always returns a 0.

MSDN suggests the OUTPUT construction, e.g.

delete from mytable 
where datefield = '5-Oct-2008' 
output datefield into #doomed

select count(*) 
from #doomed

this actually fails with a syntax error.

Any ideas?