And that’s all folks. Rochdale have been relegated out of the football league for the first time in our history. A story, I’m really struggling to write about.

A defeat at Stockport County (cheers for that football gods) was the final nail in the coffin but given that Crawley won, even a win wouldn’t have been enough to keep us in with a shout.

I’m hurting. I know all the rest of the supporters are hurting. I’m know the board are hurting. I’m sure a couple of the players are hurting. There will, however, be a small group of people who tried to take over the football club and lost, who will be absolutely pissing themselves at our demise. There will be fans of clubs like bury and Oldham who will be pissing themselves too. I’ll be honest, I don’t blame them either given how much stick we have given them following their troubles.

There are a thousand things you can point to that have contributed to us losing our league status for the first time ever but what good does the blame game do? Whether you blame the players, the board, Stockdale, Bentley, Bottomley, Southall, Curran or me (#BlameChaff), the discussion now needs to be about how we survive as a football club.

Just two years ago, we were taking on the likes of Sunderland in League One and now, we won’t even get our fixtures for next season on the same day as them as we look out for fixtures against Altrincham, Eastleigh, Dorking Wanderers, Wealdstone etc.

Just five years ago, we drew 2-2 at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup Fifth Round. Now we will have to qualify to reach the first-round proper.

We took Manchester United to penalties at Old Trafford just four years ago in the League Cup. We won’t even be competing in the League Cup now.

We won’t be on next season’s FIFA24 or whatever it’s gonna be called.

To manage us on Football Manager 2024, you’ll have to add our league before you load the game up.

There are so many questions as we head into the unknown as well. What happens to the Academy? What structure and model do we implement in order to survive as a football club? Who do we appoint as a manager? Will the board still be here given that they want to offload their shares? What can we charge for season tickets? We don’t know the answer to any of those questions yet and won’t know for a while yet but while the dust settles, these are questions that I would sincerely hope were being asked and planned for the last few months.

A very sorry situation that none of us have experienced before and although some of us might have done what we can to mentally prepare for it, it hurts. It really fucking hurts!

The darkest day in this club’s 116-year existence.

Photo: Action Images

DavvyJons added 18:16 - May 6 In my opinion, this is a huge fall, which we did not want, which we wanted to avoid, it is a huge stress that everyone goes through, from directors to fans. The players feel this stress especially, so they need to talk to a therapist https://us.calmerry.com/ more than anyone else, as they become the very centre of all the failures that the club as a whole is experiencing. New times are waiting for the team, hopefully much better than before, and so I have great hope for a bright future. Everything will be fine in the bright future, and you will be in your place in FIFA 26.

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