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First off, I'd just like to say that once again, the people of Rochdale were very welcoming, you have terrific people working behind-the-scenes and Leighanne in particular is always a delight. I actually felt bad for her upon leaving late last night, but she was as lovely as ever. As was Keith who greeted us all on arrival and had nothing but kind words for our club afterwards. I know he had a pop at some Dale fans again post-match but you/we are used to that by now.
Regards the game, it went like our previous three in the league in terms of dominance and we deserved the victory. I feared another Wimbledon in the first half hour as the goal wouldn't come, but once it arrived that was that. Although, had Pinillos not blocked Rafferty's shot early in the second, things may have altered? Hard to say because we've not conceded yet so not sure how we'd react to that.
I don't believe you'll struggle this season based on what I saw. I don't think many sides outside the Premier League would have coped with us last night, it was one of those performances that come along very rarely. We were similarly excellent against Oxford and Bradford, but not quite to that extent. Dale tried to play, all credit to you for that, but we throttled you to death. Bradford for a spell and Wimbledon throughout, they hoofed the ball, didn't take any risks and defended like Trojans. We will need to find a remedy for that sort of approach where teams park the bus. But yeah, come and take us on, play football and that suits this system we employ.
Also, whilst we are a smaller Championship club and not big spenders, at this level there can't be much bigger in terms of fanbase, budgets, expectations. Whereas Dale and Keith have to do everything on the cheap and probably have a bottom four budget. There were nearly more of our fans than yours last night. So you're seriously punching in L1. In my opinion of course.
Thank you to the fans I saw who were just as welcoming, and to Ian who I saw in the carpark pre-match, below is one of the things I do these days.