With Dale desperate for some fire power up front, Keith Hill has moved to add Chris O’Grady to his squad on a six month loan deal from Oldham Athletic. 

So what do we know about him?  Well, firstly, he’s not a striker who many will have known nothing about as he’s quite a well travelled player.  He’s also quite a big striker, standing at 6 foot 3.  Something we very much lack if you ask me.  

He started off at Leicester City as a trainee in 2003 and stayed with the Foxes for 4 years making just 7 starts with a further 18 appearances from the bench.  In those appearances he managed 3 goals. 

While at Leicester, he was sent out on loan to various clubs starting with Notts County where he spent 3 months, playing 11 games but failed to score during his time there. 

He then moved on loan to Rushden & Diamonds where he scored 4 goals in 25 appearances. 

While he was by no means prolific as you can see, he impressed enough to be included in Leicester’s season run-in in the Championship and he even scored a late winner at Luton Town in March 2006. 

In January 2007, he secured a £65,000 move to Rotherham United and he stayed at Millmoor until May 2008 having played 55 games scoring 15 goals. 

He moved up a Division though as neighbours Oldham Athletic signed him for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £35,000. 

Since moving to Boundary Park, he’s only started 6 games and come off the bench for a further 11 appearances and has failed to score. 

Again, he’s found himself being sent out on loan to various clubs having been unable to establish himself as a first team regular.   

He moved a little further down the road to join Bury on a months loan, playing 6 games, 3 of them from the start, again without scoring. 

In January of that season, he moved over the Pennines for a months loan at Bradford City in which he only made 2 sub appearances without scoring. 

Yet another loan move came when he joined Stockport County the day after getting back to Oldham from his Bradford loan move.  He managed a much longer run of appearances while at County and played 18 games, scoring just 2 goals. 

He’s made just one appearance this season for Oldham, that being from the start in their Carling Cup defeat at Carlisle United in which he was substituted half way through the second half. 

The stats aren’t good reading but he’s done more travelling than Richard Branson as we’re his ninth club at the age of just 23.  He’s never really settled in one place apart from maybe Rotherham where he did well and scored goals. Hopefully in the six months he’s at Rochdale, he can get his stop-start career back on track and score some goals and we’d like to welcome him and wish him all the best at Spotland. Chris will be wearing the number 19 shirt which has been vacant since Lee Thorpe was released.

Photo: Action Images

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