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Dale fans of a certain vintage will know exactly what I mean - Saturday 10th May 1969.
I only wish that was some footage somewhere of that team. Just to reassure me that my memory is right and that they were that massively talented group of players that I fondly recall.
Would they survive in the modern game? No respect to our current squads or the sides of 2009/10 and 2013/14 who went onto emulate their achievement but I'm sure they would!
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 17:38 - May 9 with 3704 views
Let's not forget that in their first season in the third tier (1969/70) they finished in 9th place, a record not equalled until 2011, before going on to knock first tier Coventry out of the FA Cup - a feat still not matched by any Dale side since
Talented? Undoubtedly. Would they survive in the modern game? With current fitness regimes, absolutely
Remember it like yesterday. Great end to my first season as a Dale supporter, considering where we started off from with that fantastic run of results starting with the win at Workington on Boxing Day. Think overall fitness levels and the general pace of the modern game might catch a few of them out (sorry, Sir Reg!) but I'd still fancy seeing Graham Smith take on a few left backs
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 19:58 - May 9 with 3489 views
Please can an older person who was around back in 1969 answer these questions:
1. Could you park anywhere outside the ground? 2. Was the game advertised outside the ground? 3. Was there a PA system? If yes, did they play music or just read out announcements? 4a). Was there ever any radio coverage? 4b). I'm guessing there was one of those half-time scoreboards knocking around. If so, how did they get the scores? 5. Did they have lots of spare footballs for when the ball went out of the ground? If yes, were they all the same or a random collection? 6. Did they have season tickets?
Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 19:47 - May 9 by spikey58
Remember it like yesterday. Great end to my first season as a Dale supporter, considering where we started off from with that fantastic run of results starting with the win at Workington on Boxing Day. Think overall fitness levels and the general pace of the modern game might catch a few of them out (sorry, Sir Reg!) but I'd still fancy seeing Graham Smith take on a few left backs
Lot of draws that season. Was like groundhog day. One All, scorer, Melledew
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 05:18 - May 10 with 3261 views
Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 20:22 - May 9 by BartRowou
Please can an older person who was around back in 1969 answer these questions:
1. Could you park anywhere outside the ground? 2. Was the game advertised outside the ground? 3. Was there a PA system? If yes, did they play music or just read out announcements? 4a). Was there ever any radio coverage? 4b). I'm guessing there was one of those half-time scoreboards knocking around. If so, how did they get the scores? 5. Did they have lots of spare footballs for when the ball went out of the ground? If yes, were they all the same or a random collection? 6. Did they have season tickets?
1 my recollection is it was similar to today but i was walking and on the bus at the time
2.advertised on the same boards, but they kept them updated unlike now 3 Yes, played music
4. cant remember 5 it was a board in the corner between pearl street and willbuts. Kid climbed up and put up the scores 6. cant recall 7 Yes, I still have all mine.
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 07:43 - May 10 with 3209 views
As regards 4 (a) Radio Manchester started in 1968 but there was extremely restricted coverage, Nothing like Matey FM. The halftime scoreboard was attached to the wooden floodlight posts at the corner of Pearl Street/Sandy Lane. Someone in the club office wrote down the scores from Radio 2 (no Five Live then) and some small lads climbed up to display them. As for parking I'm not sure. I know that a fleet of buses used to park up on Churchill Street and Viking Street and ferry fans down to town after the game. As soon as a bus was full it set off. I'm not sure that all the players had cars. Colin Parry could be seen on the bus to Stockport where he lived sometimes. Many of them lived close to the ground as the club had some houses on Passmonds Crescent
In many ways little has changed. I travelled over on Saturday and parked up near where I went to school, went past Spotland Bridge where I went to Scouts and up past St Clements chatting amiably to others heading up for a match few of us really believed we'd win.. I sit down in a stand these days but the ground still has that homely feel to it and despite one or two own goals this year, the guys in charge genuinely care about the club. Witness the scenes in the Directors' box when the result came through from Sixfields. They are of course more exposed to criticism these days through social media. In 1969 we relied on Observer coverage - and very good it was too. I still have a whole load of cuttings from those days. We were 15 at the time and just getting a bit of independence, so travelling to watch the Dale on Ellen Smith coaches was great and from December onwards the team went on a fantastic run. I can still reel off the team from those days and the matches versus Halifax at the business end of the season had aggregate attendances of 30,000 if I recall correctly. I remember having a letter published in Shoot about it! The team had a terrific balance - Billy Rudd and Vinny Leech in midfield making the whole team tick. In fifty years time let's hope all the young 'uns on here will be waxing lyrical about last Saturday.
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 17:04 - May 10 with 2959 views
Buses for the football used to leave for the ground from the Esplanade near the Cenotaph. As soon as one was full it set off. Standard fare, I think it might have been 3d.
Buses for Hornets left from outside the Electric House.
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 17:18 - May 10 with 2938 views
1. Could you park anywhere outside the ground? A1 My Dad used to park where the little artificial pitch is now, I think it was sixpence or thereabouts. To call it a car park was an injustice to the local tip. 2. Was the game advertised outside the ground? A2 Yes but to be honest very few supporters would have gone past it in those days as most seemed to walk down Sandy Lane and away from the ground 3. Was there a PA system? If yes, did they play music or just read out announcements? 3 Yes mainly music, teamsheet and details of the next match and a plug for the records supplier (Save Records?) 4a). Was there ever any radio coverage? Sports report - 5.00 every Saturday used to mention games occasionally but most people used it's results service to check their pools!
4b). I'm guessing there was one of those half-time scoreboards knocking around. If so, how did they get the scores? A4b. From the BBC I imagine. I can't remember if they had done away with the old ABC tins at the Pearl St end by then. The programme used to tell you which match was "A" etc and someone used to put the scores up. 5. Did they have lots of spare footballs for when the ball went out of the ground? If yes, were they all the same or a random collection? A5. There was a lad who used to run down the main stand side and collect the balls that went out of the stand and then run back with it. 6. Did they have season tickets? A6 No idea my Dad used to pay for me to get in until I earned my first proper wage... in 1974! We used to stand in the paddock (an extra sixpence) . My mate Les and his Dad used to stand in there too. Les and I met socially years later and eventually figured out where we knew each other from. we have been standing together in the Sandy ever since and have well over 100 years of disappointment between us! (With an occasional high point and teary eye).
The best thing I remember was the redolent smell of Park Drives and Woodbines that you could detect 100s of yards from the ground. I never smoked but the smell is locked in my memory banks. On wet days the ciggies were mixed with the smell of wet coats and flat caps, wonderful! I could probably write a book about being a Rochdale fan as a kid, decorating my rattle, collecting autographs, those little pocket-sized programmes, being in awe of my Dads mates when they bollocked the referee and my all time favourite, when a chap who stood behind us for years went off on one to a referee and the best description he could manage was to accuse him of being narrow... "You're Narrow ref, Narrow as a bloody biro" everyone turned round to look at him and then most of the paddock just corpsed with laughter. Ahh, we knew how to enjoy ourselves in those days!
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 09:43 - May 11 with 2694 views
Etched into my memory is the trip to Halifax late in the season and the trail of buses and coaches taking us all over Blackstone Edge. Like many others of that era, recalling the members of that team comes easier than any other. At the time I bought one of the few momentos of the promotion. A key ring on which was printed the words "keys to promotion". The floodlights consisted of two telegraph poles at each corner of the ground with a bank of lights between the two poles. They wouldn't even do for a park pitch now. One of my City supporting school mates christened Spotland "the stadium of lights". After matches I invariably called in at the hut in the corner of the car park that sold programmes from other clubs. The programme shop only took up the front of the but and people used go through into the back. Does anyone know what went on in the rest of the hut?
[Post edited 11 May 2018 16:30]
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Happy 49th anniversary tomorrow on 13:13 - May 11 with 2628 views
From memory there wasn't much kit either. Twelve shirts numbered ermmm 1-12 My granddad used to joke that Tony Buck looked skinny because Big Reg and Terry Melling had stretched the number nine shirt....
And I'm told that it was a fight for shorts that fitted.
The season before Les Green had bought his own green shorts and socks to match the goalies jersey only to fall foul of a rule that keepers had to wear the same coloured shorts and socks as the outfield players.
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