The 16th December did not start
off a good day for Dale supporters. It was very much the morning after
the night before, and even those teetotallers amongst the Dale support
were waking up with a hangover after another wretched performance left
us very much facing a relegation battle. The latest side to brush us
aside was Hartlepool, and even our own manager cited the performance as
being one of a side playing out the end of the season, with nothing left
to play for. That Dale stood in 22nd
position, with just twenty points from their 22 games that season up
until that point with both sides below us in the table having a game in
hand on Dale. It was one dismal performance too far, and on that
Saturday morning it was announced that Steve Parkin had been sacked. The
footnote to that sacking story was the news that youth team boss Keith
Hill had been given caretaker responsibility.
And who'd have thought that one of the most
significant moment in our club's history could be announced in such
inauspicious circumstances, wrapped up in a tiny paragraph at the end.
Of course, Hilly's position as caretaker manager was far from some sort
of masterstroke by Chairman Chris Dunphy. Hilly was pretty much the only
one with any coaching ability left at the club following the dismissal
of Parkin and his assistant Ford.
That caretaker role could have been over before
it had even begun. Defeat to MK Dons in Hill's first game as a manager
courtesy of a Nathan Stanton own goal saw us go within three points of
bottom place, and when we trailed to Wrexham 2-0 on Boxing Day, the odds
on Hill getting the job on a permanent basis must have been about
1,000,000-1.
But a spirited comeback to snatch a 2-2 draw was
followed up by the seemingly impossible - back to back 4-0 wins, and all
of a sudden this side of free transfers and no hopers looked to have
something about them. And from out of nowhere, Keith Hill had announced
himself as a real contender for the job. In fairness, Dunphy was left
with no choice in the matter. How could he look elsewhere to the likes
of Ritchie or Horton, when right on his doorstep he had someone who had
shown himself capable of getting this side to perform to a standard that
had looked alien to us since the departure of Holt some eighteen months
previous?
Hill's permanent appointment was coupled with
the announcement that David Flitcroft had almost secretly been operating
at the club in a coaching position alongside Hill in his caretaker role.
There were sceptics at the time, those accusing the club of going for
the cheapest option yet again, those accusing Hill of bringing in his
best mate, pointing out a lack of experience amongst the two, and even
crueller those citing the quality of the two as players as reasons why
as not to appoint them.
Those that had been at the two previous Dale
games, and left with the biggest grins seen at Dale games in some time
were quick to defend the decision to retain Hill and Flicker until the
end of the season.
We have never, ever looked back.
That first season from January onwards will go
down as one of my favourites as a Dale supporter. From a relegation
battle on the cards at the turn of the year, we finished the season with
automatic promotion form for Hill's time in charge, with even a hint of
Play Off football at one time.
But that hint of a Play Off was merely
incidental. Freed from the shackles of each season being a question of
whether the long wait for promotion could be achieved, we had fantastic
football for the sake of fantastic football. No cares at all about
league tables, just footballing adventure after footballing adventure
every Saturday afternoon. The turnaround was instantaneous, and a
massive feelgood factor descended over Spotland.
Little old Rochdale were turning up against
sides with intentions of higher things and were left in a crumpled heap.
MK Dons, Accrington and Macclesfield all received pastings at Spotland,
but it was the 7-2 demolition of Stockport which stood out - a lesson
given in effective, passing football, clinical finishing and a hunger
we'd only ever seen in opposition sides.
But not quite of the same scoreline, for me the
biggest result of the season was the 2-0 over Hartlepool. With almost
3000 coming from the North East, that season's best side came head to
head with the best side in the second half of the season, with Dale
coming out comfortable winners. A marker had been put down.
The second season carried a whole added weight
of expectation. Understandable thinking considered what Dale could
achieve if they could match the January to May form over the course of a
full season. We were not to be disappointed.
It was another season full of great memories.
The hammerings on the road of Accrington, Rotherham, Chester and
Mansfield suggested that we could score four goals in every away game to
such an extent that a 3-0 away win would carry a tinge of
disappointment.
We showed we could do it the hard way on our
away travels too with the nervy 1-0 ten man victory at MK Dons, and 4-3
victories against Shrewsbury and Chesterfield.
But the main memory from that year was one that
will stay with us to our dying day. That second leg against Darlington
in the Play Offs when we came back from an aggregate 3-1 deficit in
front of a capacity Spotland crowd to take the game to penalties through
a David Perkins screamer.
I must have watched the penalties from that day
over a hundred times by now, whether it be through Sky Plus or You Tube,
and I'll be honest enough to admit I still get the nerves now. Possibly
the most nervous time I've known as a Dale supporter, but on the touch
line, Keith Hill seemed as calm as anybody even performing some
sort of foot tapping dance to wind up his players.
Of course, some bloke called Jason Kennedy saw
his penalty saved, and then Muirhead stepped up and the rest is history.
That hush before his spot kick still sends shivers down the spine before
the most joyous scenes ever witnessed in the modern era at Spotland.
Rumour has it amongst those celebrating on the pitch was a sixteen year
old lad called Craig Dawson.
Of course, the final was a game too far, and
there remains a sour taste in the mouth regarding the absence of David
Perkins through suspension and the debts racked up by County financing
their season which came back to bite them on the backside last season.
There are some amongst our support who look upon
Hill's second full season in charge as being one of disappointment. That
despite the fact that we made the Play Offs for a second successive
season.
It was a season which again carried many high
points, and even automatic promotion looked to be on the cards for a
while, especially after Dale went second with a last minute win away at
Wycombe with just eight games to go but Dale stumbled their way through
the last few games, and we couldn't give it one last push in the Play
Offs, with our season coming to a close in deepest, darkest Kent on a
Sunday night.
Perhaps conscious of the way we finished the
2008-9 season, Keith Hill seemed to be facing questions from the support
base for perhaps the first time in his reign as manager. There were few
if any at all suggesting that he wasn't the man for the job, but there
were murmurings that our perceived weaknesses weren't being addressed
with a lack of finances cited as the main reason.
The strong defender wanted at the back had not
been signed, and the lack of a big man up front still remained a worry.
Many had written the season off after a Summer in which we'd signed more
goalkeepers than outfield players. This was not a side that looked to
have been improved over the Summer months, and Hill faced an even bigger
challenge when after just one game, we sold our top scorer. An
impossible task had somehow been made even more difficult overnight.
And so three and a half months on, we sit
comfortably at the top of the league.
And deservedly so, after we've been treated to
the most glorious performances from a side in which Tom Kennedy is
considered an old head at 25. We've repeated over and over in match
reports (probably due to a lack of journalistic acumen on our part) that
as Dale supporters, we have never had it as good as we're having right
now.
Every one of the rules in the book is being torn
up. You don't win anything with kids, you can't football your way to
success in the basement division and perhaps crucially, little old
Rochdale will always remain little old Rochdale.
Be in no doubt at all, these are the glory days
of supporting this side, and even those old enough to remember the
promotion season from 1969 could not claim for one moment that this
isn't a patch on that season of glory, and it is impossible to let that
slip without paying tribute to our management team of Hill and
Flitcroft.
That little old Rochdale that they took over was
a Rochdale facing relegation in the face. The Rochdale they have crafted
has become one which is feared throughout the division to such an extent
that game after game in recent weeks has seen the opposition manager
trot out the excellence of our side as the opening line in his defence
of his side's defence.
The philosophy looks to be so simple at times.
Bring players to the club and make them better players. Take players,
who have perhaps lost their way a little or have a point to prove, and
give them that platform to do their stuff. If you're good enough, you're
old enough. And probably too old if you're 26 or more.
And from a footballing point of view, it seems
equally simple. Keep the ball on the floor, stick it out wide and let
the wingers do their job. But that simplicity has not been achieved
without a phenomenal amount of hours of graft put in behind the scenes,
on the training grounds, working with individual players, changing the
mentality League Two players.
Three years ago, sports science was simply two
different subjects you used to do at school, conditioning was something
the more effeminate lads did to their hair and nutrition was two words
rather than one. League Two we may be, but that shouldn't mean that we
adopt a League Two mentality. "A Premier League team in the making" may
have been mocked, but there was much reality behind those words.
Of course, like with any manager there has been
criticisms. Hill was criticised for sticking with Glenn Murray for so
long when he wasn't scoring, he was slated for his persistence of
playing Joe Thompson, he was having to put his faith in a teenage
defender plucked from non league football etc. The criticisms have never
lasted too long.
In achieving three years in charge, there are
just seventeen managers in charge of their club longer than Keith Hill
has, and to put it into some sort of local context, there's only been
one Dale manager to have a longer than three years in charge at Spotland
since the days of Dick Connor almost forty years ago. Perhaps remaining
in charge here is as much of an achievement as anything else is.
In summary, it's been three years spent with
massive grins on our faces. Three years of fantastic football, three
years spent challenging at the right end of the division, three years of
hope, three years of immense pride, and three years of muttering at 5pm
every Saturday about how we've "footballed them to death".
And we'll leave you with this. Spend about ten
minutes thinking about your ten favourite moments from all your time
watching Dale. I'll be very, very surprised if over half of them hadn't
come in the past three years regardless of how many years you've been
watching Dale for. Thanks Keith.
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