Rochdale AFC have been in League 2, the lowest tier in the football league for nearly all their existence. In the season of 1969, the achieved promotion however and suffered relegation in 1974 afterwards. This was the only time they would be promoted for 36 years. Many had dubbed League 2 'The Rochdale Division' after spending so much time in the league, and when promotion finally came knocking the fans could not believe their luck. Promotion was coming under the management of Keith Hill who took them to the playoffs twice and reached Wembley for the first time unfortunately losing out 3-2 to Stockport County despite taking the lead. It was their first season in League 1 in the season 2010/11 and Rochdale were fully expected to go straight down. Some bookies had them at 14/1 just to survive in the league for one year, let alone do as well as they did. They surpassed all expectations and beat teams like Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday and local rivals Oldham in their bid to remain in League 1 and they finished a fully deserved, yet still surprising 9th place. A very respectable place for a team with no experience of playing against the type of clubs in that league. At the end of the season however, Championship side Barnsley came in and offered Keith Hill a position as manager and he took the opportunity leaving Dale without a manager. Up stepped Steve Eyre, the current manager and now Rochdale are 6 games into their campaign and yet to record a win. They sit second bottom in the table and it looks like they are steadily declining as the influence of Keith Hill is no more and Steve Eyre really looks under pressure especially after their 4-2 drubbing at the hands of newly promoted Stevenage. With local rivals Bury and Oldham in the same league as Dale, they will want to try their best to stay up in League 1 not only for the clubs sake and the fans sake, but for bragging rights too as nobody wants to be the one to lose the most and suffer the most defeats. Pride is at stake as well as League 1 status and the way things are going they won't be counted as genuinely challenging opponents for anyone in the league unless something drastic can be done and rapidly. Rochdale look set to return to the league which haunted them for almost 4 decades and their rivals have every chance of staying up, so this spells out a bad few years to come for Rochdale AFC unless they find their attacking sharpness and eye for goal which carried them up to 9th last season. Rochdale will need a miracle as it stands, but as we know football is a funny game and anything could happen.
Rochdale prospects anyone? Let me know
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