Some awful news reaching us is that former Rochdale manager John Hollins MBE has passed away at the ages of 76.

Hollins was the first ever Dale manager to lead the club to the playoffs, back in 2001/02 where we lost to Rushden & Diamonds.

Steve Parkin left the club in November 2001 and the former Chelsea legend took over as manager a month or so later and steered Dale to finishing 5th in Division Three, winning 10 and drawing 10 of the 27 games he was in charge for.

His playing career saw him play 744 games over a 26-year career with the likes of Chelsea, QPR and Arsenal. He also won an England cap while he also managed Chelsea, QPR and Swansea City prior to Rochdale and Stockport, Crawley and Weymouth after his spell at Spotland.

Our thoughts are with John’s family.

RIP John Hollins

Photo: Action Images

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