Lower league football is often pigeon-holed as a gruesome blend of direct tactics, agricultural challenges and mud, but Keith Hill’s Rochdale have challenged these stereotypes with resounding success so far this season.
MM look back at Dale’s season so far as the League Two outfit prepare to host Championship Leeds United in the FA Cup on Saturday, the 1972 winners of the world’s oldest cup competition.
August
On a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon ahead of Rochdale’s opening game against Hartlepool there was the usual early season hue of anticipation at Spotland, intensified by the fact that the home side had enjoyed an unbeaten pre-season.
However few people could have been more excited than 21-year-old Scott Hogan.
Hogan’s Spotland debut had been four years in the making after he re-joined the club that released him as a teenager, in the summer of 2013.
Suffice to say that it was worth the wait.
Just 13 minutes in the forward received a Michael Rose throw-in, danced away from three challenges and curled a shot into the Hartlepool net. Hogan had finally arrived.
A strike that set Dale on the way to a 3-0 win, it set the tone for what has been an impressive campaign so far.
Hogan displayed the sort of traits on opening day that would define not only himself but whole team for the rest of 2013: determination, confidence in possession and creativity.
The remainder of the summer was frustrating for Dale with away defeats at Doncaster, in the Carling Cup, and Burton Albion, in the league.
Although Keith Hill’s men did record draws with early table-toppers Chesterfield and Oxford United, who would also turn out to be force in the division.
September
After a luke-warm start to the season, Dale blazed in to red hot form in September wining all of their four games.
The biggest Spotland crowd of the season to date, 5,616, saw another Hogan strike secure a 1-0 victory over rivals Bury, in a game where Dale played 52 minutes with ten men following Peter Vincenti’s dismissal.
Hill’s side repeated the trick at Accrington Stanley two weeks later surviving the then basement’s club aerial bombardment to win 2-1 after George Donnelly received a harsh red card on the stroke of half-time.
Two wins were recorded with a full complement of players against Torquay (1-0) and Wycombe Wanderers (3-2).
The Wycombe game sent shockwaves through the league as Dale raced into 3-0 inside fifteen minutes with a rampant Hogan leading the charge with his third goal of the month.
Dale’s impeccable record in September earned plaudits for manager and player alike as Hill received manager of the month and Hogan was awarded with PFA fan’s player of the month for his eye-catching displays.
October
But the formidable curse of manager of the month struck at Portsmouth as an out-of sorts Dale were resoundingly beaten 3-0.
However a mark of Hill’s side throughout this campaign has been their resilience following a defeat and was demonstrated the following Tuesday in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
That game also introduced another young star into the Rochdale team, 18-year-old Jamie Allen was compared to a young Paul Scholes by his team-mates as he put in a man-of-the-match display on his debut.
This was followed up by a 3-0 demolition of Newport County with Graham Cummins (on loan from Preston North End) and Bastien Hery netting their first goals for the club.
A third win of October came at Cheltenham Town with majestic double from Ian Henderson securing a 2-1 triumph.
Three days later Dale reached the summit of League Two after leaving it late to beat lowly Northampton Town 3-2.
Trailing 2-1 with three minutes remaining lesser teams may have surrendered, but not Rochdale.
Late goals from Rose and Donnelly turned around a game in which Henderson, who also got on the score-sheet, was once again influential.
Hill’s men were soon knocked off top-spot though, with defensive errors costing them dearly at Dagenham and Redbridge as they lost 3-1 despite dominating the game, having 28 shots to Dagenham’s eight.
November
The penultimate month of 2013 was a mixed one for Dale as their unbeaten home record was surprisingly ended by AFC Wimbledon, who had not won in six games prior to visiting Spotland.
It was a dark day for Rochdale fans in more ways than one as the game was delayed for 25 minutes in the second half as one of the Spotland floodlights failed.
An uplift in fortunes coincided Hogan’s first start for five weeks as the forward notched his sixth goal of the season and Vincenti netted a minute from time as Dale beat Torquay 2-0 in the FA Cup first round.
Cup success turned to failure three days later as Dale crashed out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Chesterfield 3-0.
Dale returned to winning ways at Morecambe with a 2-1 victory and followed this up at home to Exeter City prevailing 3-1 thanks to a spectacular free-kick from Rose as well as goals from Cummins and Andrew Tutte.
After the final home game of the month Hill described himself as ‘off the grumpy scale’ when Ollly Lancashire and Jack O’Connell were both sent off in a shock 4-0 defeat to Scunthorpe.
The following Saturday Dale mustered a valuable point at York City keeping a clean-sheet despite having a depleted defence.
December
Prior to their first game in December the squad had enjoyed their Christmas party and Hill accused his players’ minds of still being on vodka jellies in the first half of their FA Cup second round tie at Rotherham United, as the hosts took an early lead.
However second half strikes from Matthew Lund and Vincenti dumped the League One side out to set up a third round match with Leeds United at Spotland on first weekend of 2014.
A week later Hill was once again left cursing the officials after Fleetwood Town were awarded a controversial penalty as they ran out 2-1 winners at Spotland, a result which saw Dale slip out of the play-off places for the first time since early October.
Two wins after Christmas helped Rochdale climb the table however and despite a January 1 loss to leaders Scunthorpe, Hill’s troops are in 5th spot and well-placed for promotion in the second-half of the season.
Watch this space.
Image courtesy of TexacoUKFC via YouTube, with thanks.
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