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Rochdale |
| Rochdale are one of those teams that always seem to have been in the basement and, in their case, it’s almost true. Save for one brief foray into the heady heights of Division Two in the late 60’s/early 70’s Dale have spent their entire existence at the bottom end of the Football League. Bearing that in mind, and the lure of a number of rather more successful teams within easy reach, you have to take your hat off to the club’s fans; after all, we’re all bored after four seasons down here so they deserve a medal for sticking it our forever and not deserting the club for something a bit more glamorous. |
| How are they doing? |
A 2-0 win over Grimsby on Tuesday night lifted Rochdale into 11 th place, just four points off the play-offs, which remain a target for Steve Parkin’s side. Their recent form has been pretty average overall, of the last eight they’ve won three, drawn three and lost two, but most of their success in this period has come at Spotland. Away from home, Dale haven’t won any of their last five, drawing two and losing three, and their last win on their travels was on Boxing Day when they beat Darlington 3-0 – coincidentally the same place that Rovers last managed to pick up three away points at (though for us it was rather longer ago). |
Anyone to look out for? |
| Midfielder Ricky Lambert recently joined Dale from Stockport and he’s made an immediate impression scoring two goals in three appearances, including one in Tuesday’s victory over Grimsby. |
| He likes to have a go! |
| Top-scorer Grant Holt has twenty-one goals to his name so far this season. His impressive form has caused him to be linked to a number of other clubs, including Plymouth at the end of last year. For the time being though, he remains a Dale player and Rovers will have to keep a close eye on him (rather closer than our defenders did on Jon Parkin at times last week at any rate). |
| Sheedhead Alert |
There must be a shortage of ex-82ers in this Division at the moment: for about the third home game in a row there are no former Sheedheads to abuse. Boo. |
| What about Rovers connections? |
Paul Tait joined Rochdale from Rovers last summer and makes his first return to the Mem this weekend. Taity has assumed cult status amongst the gasheads.com team and we’ll be giving him a huge cheer when he runs on the pitch (and hoping everyone else joins in). Former Port Vale midfielder Neil Brisco was alleged to be a Rovers target last summer but he ended up at Rochdale instead. Things didn’t seem to work out too well and he’s been on loan to Norwich Victoria since November. |
| Any rivals? |
| Most teams have rivals but not, it seems, Rochdale. One local told us that, as a fairly insular place, Rochdale people don’t particularly like anyone else but that no, there aren’t really any big rivals as such. Bury is the closest team and so Dale obviously enjoy beating them but, as far as Bury are concerned it’s never been a reciprocal thing. These days we guess it might be more of a rivalry than in the past, simply by virtue of the fact that they are the two teams in the area who actually play each other, but apart from that we guess Dale fans just get to sneer at their neighbours heading off to Old Trafford or The City of Manchester Stadium. |
| Last time we met? |
| Guess what? A nil-nil draw. At the time it was our sixth of the season and we were getting excited about records but, since then Rovers have failed to add to the tally. Still a draw of sorts must be a distinct possibility on Saturday given the historical precedent: of nineteen previous encounters, twelve have been draws with only two Rovers wins (the last in 1973/74) and five going Dale’s way. |
| How’s things on the home front? |
Pretty stable as far as we can tell with little or no hint of major discontent amongst the Rochdale faithful. |
| Will they bring many? |
| We doubt it. Apart from anything else, Rochdale have an average home crowd of under 3000 and, well, it is a longish trip too. They brought 207 last season (for their first away game of the season) and we’d be extremely surprised if more than that turned up this time. |
| ‘Fascinating’ fact? |
Despite the reputation a couple of players in Division Three have for diving, it is actually Grant Holt who is the most fouled player in the division. |
| The Big Question of the Day |
| Will Paul Tait exact the ultimate revenge on the Blackthorn boo boys? |
| Possible Tabloid Headlines |
IT’S TAITY BYE TO ROVERS PLAY-OFF HOPES DALE-IGHT ROBBERY And, should young Craig score… IT’S DALE HINTON! |
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