Ex Files - Iyseden Christie

He came to the club having been chased by then boss Steve Parkin for a number of weeks as a replacement for the departed Grant Holt. He eventually made it to Spotland on the closing day of the January 2006 Transfer Window, with Dale shelling out a combined fee of £35,000 to Kidderminster Harriers for his services and Mark Jackson.

Christie was well known to Parkin having played for him for a number of seasons at Mansfield, and he had been a thorn in our own side many a time throughout that time.

It got off to a great start. Despite looking like he'd never even heard of the Slimfast plan, he had a very good debut away at Oxford, causing all sorts of problems, and having a potential goal of the season ruled out by the merest of offsides.

And then that was about as good as it got.

He soon descended into a role of an overweight non league striker, and he finished the season with just two goals to his name. One of them was a tap in, and the other hit a post and three different deflections on the way in. Happy days.

As the season progressed, it became increasingly clear that he was far from living up to expectations (or living up to expectations if you didn't rate the signing in the first place), losing his place in the first team.

With a pre-season behind him, there was hopes that he'd have worked his way back into shape, but it was not to be. He figured in four league games in 2006-7 and we failed to score in any of them and he was despatched back to where he came, with a loan move back to Kidderminster.

Back with his old side, and the lack of a four hour round trip to Rochdale, he managed to get his career back on track at Aggborough, and they had no hesitation in making his transfer permanent less than twelve months after we had paid out for his services.

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