Defender Peter Cavanagh hopes Rochdale can send a message to the rest of League Two by beating former table-toppers Fleetwood Town at Spotland on Saturday.
Dale are buoyant ahead of the visit of the ‘Cod Army’ after dumping League One Rotherham United out of the FA Cup 2-1 last week.
Saturday’s visitors heaped more misery on Rotherham last Tuesday, also beating them 2-1 in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and Cavanagh, a former Fleetwood player, knows what the away side are capable of.
“They’re a team that’s challenging like ourselves so it will be an important game and we’d like to put a marker down against them because I think they’ll be up there come the end of the season,” Cavanagh told MM.
“I always look forward to playing against former teams we had some good games against them last year (Dale won 3-0 at Highbury Stadium last season).
“I have got great memories of my time there. We had a great team spirit and a great team.”
An integral part of Fleetwood’s 2011/2012 squad that stormed to the Conference title, Cavanagh believes the disbanding of that team is a key factor in why his former side are not playing at higher level already.
“Unfortunately it was broken up a little bit too early. I think if they’d have stuck with the majority of the squad that they had, I think would probably would have achieved promotion (to League One),” said Cavanagh.
“They had a little bit too much chopping and changing but they look like they’re going in the right direction at the moment.”
Now a senior member of Keith Hill’s Rochdale squad, the 32-year-old tries to pass on words of wisdom to the club’s precocious young talents such as Scott Hogan and Jamie Allen.
“Whether they listen or not is a different thing,” he joked.
“But we have got some fantastic young players coming through.
“It is certainly an exciting time to be a Rochdale fan because in three or four years time I can see some of these young boys really achieving something.”
Image courtesy of Official Rochdale AFC via YouTube, with thanks.
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