In almost 25 years of watching this football club, never before have I felt such a palpable sense of pessimism as early as two games into a season.

However, after a sorry performance in Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Priestfield, the club are left with a difficult decision to make regarding the future of a manager who it seems has never quite won round the Dale fanbase.

At the end of last season, I wrote an article outlining five things I'd like to see Robbie Stockdale improve on for the 2022/2023 season. Now, I'm aware it's faintly ridiculous to judge whether any of these things have actually changed after two games, but given the usual pre-season optimism that swept through the fanbase, you'd hope to see some idea of progress, so let's take a look back at those five things outlined: https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/rochdale/news/57831/five-things-stockdale

One. 'Develop a more defined style'. Any evidence of that so far? If there is, it's not a style we particularly want to see more of.

Two. Add more bite to the midfield. It seems he's done this with the addition of Diagouraga - but at the expense of the creativity that Grant offered us.

Three. Improve the away form. One game. One defeat. One shot on target.

Four. Make sure we're converting chances. Well, 1 goal converted from very few chances isn't actually that bad I suppose.

Five. Foster a connection between the players and fans. Two games in and it feels like it's at it's lowest point in his reign.

It's clear the majority of the supporters want Stockdale to go but to be honest, the board are in a sticky situation if they see sacking a manager as a viable option after just two matches.

They've been backed into a corner now. A lot of people have made the point this summer that League Two doesn't appear to have a basket case club like Oldham or Scunthorpe were last season, but if another club were to sack their manager two games into the season, do you think you'd be looking at that club and thinking anything other than 'basket case?' As a potential new manager, would you think twice about moving to a club that loses faith in it's man in charge so early in the season?

We can only hope the board learn from this. When they hired Stockdale, they were new to the game. He had to deal with an embargo, an attempted hostile takeover and the sale of arguably his two most important players part way through last season. You can't blame the board for wanting to keep the faith in their man - but the reality is he should have gone at the end of the season, if not earlier.

Whatever his plan is, it's never been obvious on the pitch. Under him, we've never been particularly good at anything. We've not been good at getting wide and getting crosses into the box, we've not been good at set pieces, we've not played possession-based football but nor have we been direct. After 48 league games in charge, I still find myself wondering what kind of team he wants us to be.

And that's without getting onto the sheer lack of desire that's been on display time and again. Stockdale often talks about non-negotiables, but how many times have we been rolled over with relative ease, without the opposition really needing to get out of first gear? Gillingham was the latest in a long line of pathetic away defeats and after the gutless performances against the likes of Sutton, Crawley and Exeter last season, I've personally decided to go to fewer away games until things drastically improved this year - or we have a new manager in place.

The particularly worrying thing for me personally is that even if he does go, I fear his recruitment has left us in a difficult spot anyway. Amid all of the usual summer excitement, I have to admit I've had my doubts. Although it's obvious that these players fill gaps in the squad not only positionally but also in terms of experience, there are doubts for me, be them over age (Henderson, Diagouraga), inexperience (the loanees), previous spells elsewhere (Rodney, Sinclair) or injures (Ebanks-Landell, John).

I'm not saying they're bad signings - but I was exercising caution in the summer and nothing in these first two weeks of the season have given me any reason to relax that caution as yet.

Over the years of writing blog posts on this site and wittering on over on the Forum, I've tried to qualify all of my opinions by admitting that in reality, I know very little about football. One of the few things I do know is that when managers, players and fans appear disjointed and at odds with each other, it's a very difficult situation to turn around.

Next up for Robbie and his charges is a home fixture against Burton Albion - but is this a no-win for him? Unless we progress and earn an exciting Second Round tie for people to look forward to, the EFL Cup is not a priority for the club or it's fans and even if we were to win on Tuesday night, defeats to Grimsby and Stevenage in the following week would pile the pressure on once again.

The fans of this club deserve something to be excited about. Cup runs and final day drama aside, the last few seasons in League One were miserable, and the last 12 months have been among the most difficult that Dale fans have ever had to endure, with the self-confessed hostile takeover attempt causing stress aplenty and the team's on-field performances doing little to provide any escapism.

At this point, does anyone have faith that Robbie Stockdale is the man to get us excited?

Fans are running out of patience already this season. The board know they can't pull the trigger just yet, but you have to question how long it will be before they decide it's time to look elsewhere.

Photo: Action Images

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