Rochdale will play Leeds United for the first time in 37 years after they were paired with the 1972 FA Cup winners in Sunday’s third round draw.
Dale reached the third round after upsetting League One Rotherham United 2-1 on Saturday courtesy of second-half goals from Matthew Lund and Peter Vincenti.
Keith Hill’s team had to come from behind as they conceded a goal after just six minutes and the Dale boss accused his players of still being pre-occupied with last week’s club Christmas party early on.
“In the first 20 minutes of the game I think the players were still thinking about vodka shots and vodka jellies,” Hill told The Dale Player.
“Last week’s Christmas party was still probably in their system.”
“I saw it coming, but I thought a week was more than enough to recover from a Christmas do.”
However Hill was as delighted at full-time as he was frustrated at half-time as his side sprang into life after the restart to advance into round three.
“We responded superbly,” he said.
“It’s about bravery, bravery in possession and bravery out of possession and I think we showed that in the second half.”
“I’m really pleased that we’ve progressed to the next round, it means so much to a club like ourselves.”
Dale can now look forward to the visit of Yorkshire giants Leeds, who will undoubtedly bring a large travelling army of supporters to Spotland for the game on the first weekend of January 2014.
The two teams have only ever met twice with the Whites winning on both occasions.
Of these two clashes, the most recent was in August 1977 when current Queens Park Rangers first-team coach Joe Jordan was among the scorers in a 3-0 win for Leeds at Spotland.
Image courtesy of Texaco UK FC via YouTube, with thanks.
For more on this story and many others, follow Mancunian Matters on Twitter and Facebook.
