Here we go then, the first of 3 potential cup finals and we make the journey to Rochdale for the play off eliminator with the winners earning a play off semi final trip to Forest Green Rovers. I’m starting the pre-match thread early as I’m sure there is much to discuss!
In the two games we played against Rochdale during the regular season, we won 1-0 at their place (Josh Walker’s effort in the 3rd minute of first half stoppage time being the difference between the two sides) and more recently drew 1-1 at Roots Hall with our late equaliser being an OG.
Their current form is better than ours, and would be even better if they had not lost to Braintree on the last day of the season after making 7 changes to the starting line up, presumably to rest some key players.
It will be interesting to see what kind of crowd they get for this game as their attendances are not great, considering they’re an ex-football league club.
Their biggest crowd of the season so far has been against Oldham in the league, a local derby, where they managed to get only 5,880 - and I bet a fair few of them were Oldham fans. Mind you, it would seem unlikely that we’ll sell out our allocation on a Thursday night as it’s a long way to go.
Dale’s Head Coach Jimmy McNulty has made the transition from player to manager look pretty easy and is clearly getting some good performances from his mix of local talent, lower league journeymen like 40-year old Ian Henderson, and shrewd loan signings keeper Killian Barrett (Sheffield Wednesday), Jillian Buyabu (Sheffield United) Jack Kingdom (Manchester United), Jay Bird (Exeter City) and Leon Ayinde (Ipswich Town). It doesn’t look like he has any ex-Shrimpers in his squad.
Kev has kept a settled side for the last few games which have yielded 4 clean sheets on the bounce. Given this it seems unlikely that he’ll change the goalkeeper or defence, barring injuries. Midfield seems to be working OK with Leon Chambers-Parillon seemingly preferred as an option to run at defenders with tired legs rather than starting. Up top the strikers seem to be working in pairs and presumably this is because of how the coaching staff feel they will be most effective based on what they see in training.
An unchanged side seems to be the likely outcome, but who would you pick to start the play-off eliminator, and what do you think the result will be?
In the two games we played against Rochdale during the regular season, we won 1-0 at their place (Josh Walker’s effort in the 3rd minute of first half stoppage time being the difference between the two sides) and more recently drew 1-1 at Roots Hall with our late equaliser being an OG.
Their current form is better than ours, and would be even better if they had not lost to Braintree on the last day of the season after making 7 changes to the starting line up, presumably to rest some key players.
It will be interesting to see what kind of crowd they get for this game as their attendances are not great, considering they’re an ex-football league club.
Their biggest crowd of the season so far has been against Oldham in the league, a local derby, where they managed to get only 5,880 - and I bet a fair few of them were Oldham fans. Mind you, it would seem unlikely that we’ll sell out our allocation on a Thursday night as it’s a long way to go.
Dale’s Head Coach Jimmy McNulty has made the transition from player to manager look pretty easy and is clearly getting some good performances from his mix of local talent, lower league journeymen like 40-year old Ian Henderson, and shrewd loan signings keeper Killian Barrett (Sheffield Wednesday), Jillian Buyabu (Sheffield United) Jack Kingdom (Manchester United), Jay Bird (Exeter City) and Leon Ayinde (Ipswich Town). It doesn’t look like he has any ex-Shrimpers in his squad.
Kev has kept a settled side for the last few games which have yielded 4 clean sheets on the bounce. Given this it seems unlikely that he’ll change the goalkeeper or defence, barring injuries. Midfield seems to be working OK with Leon Chambers-Parillon seemingly preferred as an option to run at defenders with tired legs rather than starting. Up top the strikers seem to be working in pairs and presumably this is because of how the coaching staff feel they will be most effective based on what they see in training.
An unchanged side seems to be the likely outcome, but who would you pick to start the play-off eliminator, and what do you think the result will be?
Last edited:
