Dale return to league action after our FA Cup exploits at Newcastle in midweek with a trip down to high flyers Wycombe Wanderers.
Date: Saturday 18th January 2020
Kick-off: 3pm
Venue: Adams Park
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THE DALE:
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Dale have enjoyed a positive start to 2020 with two league wins and a third round FA Cup draw at home to Newcastle United and a nice trip up to Newcastle in the replay. Dale were beaten 4-1 in the replay, but it didn’t really hinder what was a wonderful day. It makes all the trips to the Accringtons, Newports and Crawley’s of this world all worthwhile when you get rewarded like that with a trip to one of the most impressive stadiums I’ve ever been to.
Our last league match saw us pick up a vital win over Hillcroft’s Bolton Wanderers to create a bit of breathing space between us and the relegation spaces. It also sparked a pretty spectacular rant on BBC Radio Bolton from Keith Hill.
That win saw Dale go 6 points clear of safety though Tranmere Rovers do have a game in hand over us but it’s very fair to say the league table looks better than it did about three weeks ago.
Dale have picked up yet more injuries recently with Ollie Rathbone, Tyler Magloire and Ryan McLaughlin all picking up knocks. Jim McNulty remains out of action as well and now it seems Spanish Bob may have been subbed off on Tuesday night because of injury as he was seen with an ice pack on his leg so we may see Jay Lynch in goal. We also have no idea about Paul McShane who has been absent since our New Years Day win over Accrington and may even now be out of contract at this point.
We did have some transfer news this week with Tyler Smith joining the club on loan from Sheffield United. The 21 year old striker had been on loan at Bristol Rovers until this week but comes as a promising replacement for Rekeil Pyke who went back to Huddersfield earlier this month.
I’d hope that’s not the end of our incoming transfer activity this month!
While it would be wrong to expect a win this weekend over Wycombe, they have been in awful form recently so I’d be hoping for a point I think.
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THE OPPOSITION:
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Wycombe currently lie in 2nd place in League One. I can’t speak for anyone else but I certainly didn’t see that coming before the season started. I saw them very much being at the other end of the table but Gareth Ainsworth’s men find themselves challenging for the title!
That said, their recent form has been a bit disastrous. Having only lost one league game prior to the Christmas period, they’ve lost four of their last five games and drawn the other! If that continues, they’ll slip down the table fairly rapidly as the big boys like Ipswich, Coventry and Sunderland continue to push themselves up to the table. They’ve also conceded 12 goals in their last 5 games, conceding 4 against both Coventry and most recently Sunderland.
Gareth Ainsworth could seemingly do no wrong and was very heavily linked with a move away from Adams Park earlier in the season but opted to stay and he will be desperate to get back to winning ways and maintain their promotion push.
Predictably, Adebayo Akinfenwa is their danger man. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand how someone that big can be a professional footballer but he continues to defy expectation and is the Chairboys’ top scorer again this season with 7 goals. Their next top scorer is defender Joe Jacobson with 6 but maybe one of the issues Wycombe have is that they have little goalscoring threat without Akinfenwa.
The fixture at Spotland saw Wycombe run out 3-0 winners but I remember thinking that was mainly down to us being awful as opposed to being impressed by the visitors so I do fancy us to be able to pick a point up.
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FORM BOOK - LAST 5 GAMES:
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Rochdale:
Newcastle United (a) — LOSS
Bolton Wanderers (h) — WIN
Newcastle United (h) - DRAW
Accrington Stanley (a) - WIN
Gillingham (a) - LOSS
Wycombe Wanderers:
Sunderland (a) — LOSS
Ipswich Town (h) — DRAW
Coventry City (h) — LOSS
Portsmouth (a) — LOSS
Oxford United (a) - LOSS
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HEAD TO HEAD:
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WYCOMBE WANDERERS — 8
DRAWS — 4
ROCHDALE - 9
28 Sep 2019 — Rochdale 0-3 Wycombe Wanderers - League One
19 Apr 2019 — Rochdale 1-0 Wycombe Wanderers — League One
23 Oct 2018 - Wycombe Wanderers 3-0 Rochdale - League One
22 Mar 2014 — Wycombe Wanderers 0-2 Rochdale- League Two
28 Sep 2013 — Rochdale 3-2 Wycombe Wanderers - League Two