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Hi folks, Rochdale fan here ! Was just wondering if you could help me with a couple of things, first of all i see you have lowered the prices for the game on Saturday which has tempted me to come down to Plainmoor for the first time in 10 years. What are the chances of the terrace being open for the game as i have noticed on FLS that it has not been open for a number of your games. Also my mind is a bit hazy in regards to pubs, is boots an laces still going ? Anyway all the best for the rest of the season after Saturday of course !!

Yep boots and laces is still going and welcomes away fans, as for the away terrace being open will depend and likely numbers coming down for the match I think the away seating area holds 450 so anything above that the terrace should be open, keep an eye on our clubs official site , or here as our clubs staff do post information on this site.

Cheers mate dont think we will bring more than 450 down for this one, so it looks like seating. Must admit have not got a good feeling about this one given our recent record at Plainmoor and in the FA Cup but who knows.

CJHDALE. Hope you, and your fellow Rochdale, supporters have a safe journey down to the English Riviera. Look forward to seeing you. I think this could be a close one. Just hope that we can send you, on your homeward journey, with slightly sad faces. :-|

I don't like being negative on here but I'm of the opinion that Rochdale have enough up top to pierce our fairly porous backline and we don't have enough to get through theirs. How well does your side travel? That could be the only saving grace.

cjhdale wrote:Cheers mate dont think we will bring more than 450 down for this one, so it looks like seating. Must admit have not got a good feeling about this one given our recent record at Plainmoor and in the FA Cup but who knows.

Is Hogan going to be fit in time for this?

He looks pretty handy from the highlights I've seen of your games.

One thing strikes me about this match. It's a Cup game, so league form etc is meaningless, but since that's all we've to go on, that's what I'll use.

Rochdale, for all their impressive league standing (4th, no less), they really don't seem to be there by any real swagger. In their last 10 games, they've played the bottom 4, seven of the bottom 10 and no team higher than 10th. Of those, they have won seven and lost three. The real kicker is that they've beaten the bottom four by a single goal apiece. Bury 1-0, TUFC 1-0, Accrington 2-1 and Northampton 3-2. They had single goal victories against Wycombe and Cheltenham too. So, while they've got the knack of grinding out wins, the scores suggest that, perhaps, they're a bit like us a couple of years ago. Scoring more goals than the oppo, but perhaps without actually being the better team.
The timing of the goals is a factor here too. Yeah, a match lasts for 90 minutes and all that, but Rochdale earned their victories against Northants with two goals in the last 2 minutes. They did similar against Chelts, with their two goals coming in the last 8 minutes (both of these games included a goal beyond the regulation 90).

I accept that a win is a win (particularly true of Cup football), but there's winning and there's winning. Winning, as Rochdale have done so far (and as we did way back when) relies on many more variables going your way than winning in style does and that is always a gamble. A win by a single goal very easily turns into a draw by the awarding of a penalty or a little bit of individual brilliance or a mishit cross or a fumble or a slip or anything. A 4-0 victory is not so easily undone.

Say just three of those single goal wins turns out as draws (if I remember correctly, that would have been a fair result in our match, and that's what we would have got, but for a Krystian Pearce slip). Suddenly, "high flying" Rochdale become "twentieth place and looking over their shoulders" Rochdale and this match looks a whole lot closer than it does right now.

I could be wrong, of course. Rochdale could be the supreme masters of Division 4 and they might be desperately unlucky to only be in 4th and not top by 10 points. They might have been robbed of half a dozen goals each week by wholly inept refereeing, or the performance of a lifetime from the opposition goalkeeper. I simply don't see enough of Rochdale to know. However, on the face of it, a couple of spoony late wins against the relative rubbish in the division does not necessarily strike me as the sort of "away banker" that this fixture may look on the surface.

Matt.

diamondgirl wrote:CJHDALE. Hope you, and your fellow Rochdale, supporters have a safe journey down to the English Riviera. Look forward to seeing you. I think this could be a close one. Just hope that we can send you, on your homeward journey, with slightly sad faces. :-|

Cheers diamondgirl always had a soft spot for Torquay very friendly club with proper fans which seems to be a rarity in these Premiership obessed days. If i had a pound though for every trip home from Devon after a football match with a sad face i would be a rich man.

Well, it depends what you mean by rich and what makes you sad.

Assuming you mean a net worth of more than £53 and sad faced meaning having suffered a defeat, then you're in luck (provided you travelled to every match between Rochdale and another club, held in Devon, since the inception of the Football League.

You would have the princely sum of £54 to your name. £30 from defeats at Plainmoor, £16 from contriving to lose at Sid James and a meagre £8 courtesy of the Green half of Devin known as Cornwall Lite.

Happy to help.

Matt.

stevegull wrote:I don't like being negative on here but I'm of the opinion that Rochdale have enough up top to pierce our fairly porous backline and we don't have enough to get through theirs. How well does your side travel? That could be the only saving grace.

To be honest mate we have not really got going on the road have won twice at Accrington and Cheltenham (both 2-1) lost at Burton (0-1), Plymouth (0-1), Portsmouth (0-3) and Dagenham (1-3) and drew at Oxford . However i think we have only played poorly at Portsmouth we just dont seem to be getting the rub of the green on the road at the moment.

Jerry wrote: Is Hogan going to be fit in time for this?

He looks pretty handy from the highlights I've seen of your games.

He came on as a sub against Wimbledon mate but obviously do not look upto match fitness. I think he will almost certainly be on the bench and may be brought on if things are not going well. Dont think he will start though.

Lol at ferrailover i have never even seen us score at Torquay or Plymouth so that just shows what my record is like down here !! In regards to our recent form yes we were lucky against Northampton and Cheltenham as especially in the Northampton game we were quite poor and despite where they are in the league the Cobblers really impressed me. However you have to play for the full 90 mins which we especially at home have done.

Agree entirely, Dale, that the match is 90 minutes long (sometimes more) and that a goal in the last minute is equally as worthy as a goal in the first minute. Thing is, I wouldn't want to be playing in L1 next year, knowing that I'd only got there by beating piss poor Northants and Cheltenham with late strikes. It's not your fault, someone has to be fourth and this year it's you. This division has been atrocious for a few years now, and, without wanting to take away from the obvious achievement of being so far up the table, you really don't have to be very good at all to be promoted. I'd be saying exactly the same to you if you were bottom and we were top.
Unfortunately, by the same notion, you needn't be all that bad to drop out of it at the other end, either...

Matt.

You make some good points Matt especially in regards to the quality of the division in fact i believe football in all divisions in England is atrocious. I dont think we will go up automatically but will be around the play offs . Judging by the teams i have seen at Spotland the worst i have seen are Hartlepool and Bury and the best by far were Chesterfield .

Our form against the top half teams makes poor reading. What it does tell you is we’re a fair bottom half team.

Record v Top Half P.7 W.0 D.1 L.6
Record v Btm Half P.8 W.3 D.4 L.1

On paper Rochdale look good things. Just glad we don’t play on paper.