Michael Symes will forever be remembered for one glorious performance in a win over local rivals Oldham Athletic. And not much else.
Position: Striker
Appearances: 15
Goals: 4
Arrived from: Bournemouth (loan)
Left for: Bournemouth (end of loan)
Three of the four goals that Symes scored for the club came in that victory over Oldham but otherwise he turned out to be another former Accrington player failing to lift Dale out of relegation trouble in the back end of the 2011/2012 season.
Having moved to Liverpool as a young child, Symes came through the ranks at Everton as a youngster, partnering a certain Wayne Rooney in the Toffees' youth teams and reaching the 2002 FA Youth Cup Final, where the Blues lost to Aston Villa over two legs.
Despite a stunning scoring record for the youngster alongside the more decorated Rooney, Symes' injuries prevented him from making much of an impact at first-team level and he was moved out to Crewe Alexandra on a short-term loan deal in 2004, scoring once in four appearances for the Railwaymen.
Upon his release in 2004, Symes joined fellow Everton graduate Steven Schumacher in joining League One outfit Bradford City, but found opportunities limited as he sat behind Dele Adebola (more on him in a few weeks!) in the pecking order at Valley Parade. He'd score just three times in 15 appearances for the Bantams, spending very brief loan spells at Macclesfield (no appearances), Stockport (one appearance) and Shrewsbury (two appearances) before finally leaving West Yorkshire to join the Shrews on a permanent deal in 2006.
Symes seemed to find a home with Salop and started to make a name for himself in the lower leagues, adding eight goals in 31 appearances to the one he'd managed during his earlier loan spell in his first season with the club.
Never particularly prolific and always struggling for full fitness, he again spent time out on loan, again heading to Macc (this time scoring once in 14 appearances), Bournemouth (five appearances, zero goals) and Accrington Stanley (seven appearances, one goal) where again he sufficiently impressed to convince his loan club to bring him in on a permanent contract.
He enjoyed a very productive 2009/2010 campaign with the Reds, scoring 13 times in 41 league appearances (including one in a win at Spotland), scooping the League Two player of the month award in December and scoring against Premier League Fulham in an FA Cup Fourth Round defeat.
With his contract expiring, Symes moved to join a Bournemouth outfit that had just joined Dale in winning promotion to League One and as part of a rotated attacking line-up under Eddie Howe he would rack up 11 goals in 37 appearances for the Cherries during 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, but with Matt Tubbs arriving in Dorset during the January transfer window for a huge fee, Symes' opportunities were always likely to be limited.
Therefore, a return to the north-west and to link up with former manager John Coleman seemed to make perfect sense and he joined the club on the final day of the transfer window on loan until the end of the season.
Given Symes' size, it was clear how Coleman planned to utilise the striker and to be fair to him, Symes offered more of an option as a target man to hold up the ball than the likes of Roland Bergkamp and Daniel Bogdanovic had done earlier in the season.
However, it was clear that the assorted injuries he'd picked up throughout his career had limited his mobility and while there was quality and intelligence to his play, there wasn't the kind of dynamism required to excite supporters or trouble League One defenders all that much.
As Dale looked to become more difficult to beat and adopted a more reserved approach, Symes was limited in terms of chances and didn't score in any of his first eight games for the club until a fateful derby clash with Oldham on 17th March.
After opening his account for the club with a left-footed volley that bounced in off the post, Symes' confidence seemed to be flowing and after Shefki Kuqi's stunning equaliser, he restored Dale's lead by lashing home a loose ball in the box before completing his hat-trick with a very coolly taken penalty as Dale eventually held on for a 3-2 win.
Two 2-0 defeats in the following two weeks saw the hope after the Oldham game dissipate, but Dale appeared to have given themselves a chance of survival two weeks later when Symes again scored from the spot as part of a stunning comeback against Walsall - that penalty coming moments after he missed a glorious chance in open play. However, Jean-Louis Akpa-Apro's apparent 93rd minute winner was immediately cancelled out by an Andy Butler equaliser, all but condemning Dale to relegation.
At the end of the season Symes was released by Bournemouth but managed to stay in League One, signing for Leyton Orient on a two year deal. He scored just once in 13 appearances for the O's and found himself on loan at Burton Albion where he scored four times in 15 appearances, prompting the Brewers to sign him permanently for the 2013/2014 campaign. He scored twice more in that season, playing 13 times, but career injuries were now really starting to take their toll on the striker.
He was released at the end of the season and would play just two more career games in the 2014/2015 season, both from the substitutes bench for non-league Southport. He now runs a fitness company in Bootle by the name of 'Gym Rebel'.