MATCH PREVIEW: Rochdale (H)

This weekend the Shots welcome Rochdale to the EBB Stadium as we head into our first game in September.

The Dale will be making an almost 500 mile round trip from the Crown Oil Arena to the EBB Stadium and are playing their second season in the National League as they were relegated from League Two, and dropped out of the Football League two seasons ago. 

Just a decade ago, the team were playing in League One, and narrowly missed out on a playoff spot by finishing 8th in 2014/15. This marked the highest finish in the history of the club, and was followed by six more seasons in the third tier before relegation in the 20/21 campaign. 

The home of the Dale is the Spotland Stadium, which is currently known as the Crown Oil Arena for sponsorship reasons, which was established in 1907, and can hold up to 10,249 supporters.

Last time out 

The last time both sides met was at the EBB Stadium, where the Shots claimed the three points with a 3-1 win. 

The first goal of the match came from Lorent Tolaj in the sixth minute, however, his goal was cancelled out by the Dales’ Ian Henderson just five minutes later. A penalty given in the Shots favour was scored by Cian Harries just before the first half, and a Jack Barham goal in the first few moments of the second half saw the game end 3-1.

Since we met 

After Dale fell to an unfortunate 3-1 defeat against the Shots back in January of this year, Rochdale went on to not win a game in the next four consecutive games before finally picking up three points against Wealdstone at the end of February. 

With the rest of the season seen as a rollercoaster journey for the Dale, they ended the season mid-table sitting in 11th place which was their first season in the National League since being relegated from League Two in the 22/23 season. 

In the dugout

The man in charge of Rochdale is Jimmy McNulty. Before his managerial career, McNulty was a centre-back during his playing days and had spells at both Everton and Liverpool in his youth career, before joining Wrexham after being released from the Toffees’ academy. 

Since joining Rcohdale in 2015, he then went on to play out the rest of his career with Dale, playing 237 games, including nearly 200 in League One.

At the beginning of his final season in 2022/23, he was appointed as caretaker manager following Robbie Stockdale’s sacking, and picked up just one point in those three games. This was then followed by another interim spell towards the end of this campaign, but he was left with too much to do in too little time and, despite three wins and two draws in those final seven games, couldn’t save the club from relegation out of the Football League.

He was then appointed manager on a permanent basis, and since then has achieved an 11th place finish in the National League last season, which was his first full season in charge. 

Ticket Info:

Tickets are available HERE, and are priced as follows after the earlybird period has ended:

• ADULTS – £23
• MILITARY PERSONNEL – £19
• SENIOR (Over 66) – £19
• DISABLED – £19
• YOUNG PERSON (18-20) – £19
• 17 AND UNDER – £8
• UNDER 11 – FREE

We strongly encourage buying tickets in advance or online to save queues in the Ticket Office before the game.

You can purchase your tickets for the game from the Club Shop in person from Mon-Fri 11-2 or from 12pm on the day of the game, or by calling 01252 320211.