With kind permission of The Voice of Spotland, we reproduce their interview with Lyndon Simmonds that appeared in the matchday programme as part of our build up to the forthcoming Legends Night.
The final game of the 1987/88 season will not live fondly in the memories of too many Welshmen. Defeat on 7th May for Newport County ended their 68-year existence in English football, but more importantly for all travelling fans, it marked the last occasion they’d see a certain Lyndon Simmonds pull on a Dale shirt. Last week we spoke to the man whose dramatic impact at Spotland was cruelly cut short by a pelvis injury, aged just 21.
“It was an awful time,” Lyndon told us when asked about the summer of 1988. “I had been to see some specialists in Manchester about my pelvis because it had been causing me a few problems. It wasn’t anything particularly painful, just more like the pain I’d feel in my knees at times after a tough match or a hard training session.
“In many I was probably used to that type of pain as I’d had several operations on my knee beforehand and suffered the consequences before, but when the results came back that the injury was more serious than envisaged I was devastated.
“Over the forthcoming months I’d come into the club to do what light work I could, but eventually the doctors told me I would never fully recover and they suggested I stopped playing altogether. They diagnosed the injury as being similar to what rugby players suffered from in that it was caused by severe impact on the pelvis area. Obviously this was very rare in footballers, but in the end the decision was made to call it a day and all of a sudden I was faced with not knowing what to do next.
“Fortunately the club had been very good to me whilst I tried to recover, but after the bad news and with no ties in the area, my next big decision was made easy for me; I had no choice but to move back home to South Wales to live with my mum and dad again.”
History will show that Simmonds only ever pulled on the famous Dale jersey 73 times. Despite this limited number of appearances, his level of contribution in these games will never go unnoticed and without him our club would undoubtedly have been relegated to Conference football in 1987.
Ten goals in 22 appearances that season helped stave off such an indignity and for this we’ll all be eternally grateful.
“I’d loved every minute of being at Rochdale, but all of a sudden I now had no career and very few options to choose from. I’d left school early to join my boyhood heroes Leeds United, aged 15, and had never contemplated my football career finishing at 21.
“After going back home I was actually registered as disabled for the first 12 months because I was on crutches, back and forth from hospital all the time. I couldn’t work because of my condition and in order to receive some form of income I was registered as disabled.
“It might sound strange having 18 months earlier enjoyed memorable nights, such as the one we had against Stockport County, but here I was, virtually housebound, very short of money and not exactly with a bright future ahead of me.
“In those days you didn’t get a big handout from the FA or anything like that, so I had to battle away on my own. When I eventually recovered I got a job at a local factory that mass produced telephone parts.
“My uncle was high up in the company and got me the job, but I ultimately stayed there for the next 10 years. As you’d expect, it was a bit of a culture shock at first, like entering the real world I suppose, but I was years behind everybody else and at the time knew nothing other than football.”
Simmonds had left his native Pontypool to join Leeds United and it was his relationship with Eddie Gray that was forged at Elland Road and ultimately the only reason he arrived in the corridors of Spotland.
“One day in comprehensive school I got called to the Headmaster’s Office. To be fair this wasn’t really an unusual occurrence at the time, but I remember thinking I hadn’t done anything wrong and wondered what it was all about.
"As I entered the room I could see two men sat with the Headmaster, one of whom I recognised to be Eddie Gray. As a boyhood Leeds fan I had idolised Gray and now here he was, sat in my school, having driven 300 miles to ask me to sign for his club.
“I had been due to sign for Arsenal having been there for a month, but Gray made such an effort to get me to join Leeds that I couldn’t really say no. He told me he wanted me to go on a trip abroad and become a real part of the club and after going home to consult my dad - who wasn’t best pleased because he was working continental shifts at the time and we had to get him out of bed (before realising Eddie Gray and Jimmy Lumsden were sat in his front room of course) - I agreed to go to Yorkshire.
“Four years later Gray replaced Vic Halom as Rochdale manager and when the call came it was because of him I signed for the club, no other reason.”
An immediate strike partnership with Derek Parlane was formed and the duo spearheaded the renewed optimism of the fans as the club sought to stave off relegation. One defeat in the first nine games in which the partnership blossomed only reinforced this self-belief, even if the man himself had other thoughts at the time.
“I don’t think any of us really believed we’d escape,” he said. “I remember Eddie Gray saying we’d give it a good go, but there wasn’t the real conviction you’d expect after months of hardship and only one win in 14, or something like that.
“Fortunately we just seemed to get on a roll and everything came together and the night we confirmed we’d pulled off the great escape against Stockport County will live with me forever.
“We’ll forget the fact I missed a penalty for a second; I’d much rather prefer we talked about my goal in the second half and the joyous scenes it brought afterwards. It was like we’d won the FA Cup, not only on the terraces, but in the dressing room as well.”
Another season quickly came and went, but the club failed to build on any momentum they had gathered, with the standout results against Leyton Orient (0-8) and Tranmere Rovers (1-6) coming for all the wrong reasons. Despite this, Simmonds was the only player to score more than five goals that season, managing 15 in total, which astonishingly accounted for more than 25% of the number scored by the team as a whole.
That, however, would be the end of his short, but very impacting professional career. His style of play and sheer will to win attitude had bestowed him in the hearts of Rochdale fans forever and for this he was given the true reception he deserved at the Centenary Dinner back in May.
“It was a wonderful occasion and I cannot thank the club enough for inviting me. I have kept in touch with the lads I sat with and will do so for a long time and both myself and my wife Sian had a truly memorable night.
“I hold such tremendous memories from my time at Rochdale that I’m always delighted to come back north and I’m sure it won’t be the last you’ll see of me.”
The football bug appears to have returned to the likeable Welshmen after years away from the game. With his two young daughters growing up fast, he may now have the time take in the odd game local to him, but such was the passion that still burned for The Dale, I wouldn’t rule out seeing him on the terraces at some far flung destination in the not too distant future.