Rotherham United travel to Crown Oil Arena Stadium to take on Rochdale in a friendly game this evening before the new season.
Founded in 1920 Dale played their first League game in the new Third Division North league, and reached the League Cup Final in 1962 which was the first time a club from the bottom league/ division had reached the final of a major competition. They lost four-nil to Norwich. 1969 saw them get their first promotion from Division Four to Three.
It may be argued by some but it is thought that Keith Hill was Rochdale’s most successful manager. He led them to a top five finish in his first season as Boss losing in the play-off final at Wembley. They reached the play-offs again the following season losing in the semi-final but at the end of the 2009/10 season they gained promotion by finishing third. The summer of 2011 saw Hill move to Barnsley with Steve Eyre taking over but he was sacked later in the season and former Miller Chris Beech was put in charge as caretaker before John Coleman was confirmed as manager in January 2012 but he couldn’t stop them being relegated and was sacked after a year in charge. Keith Hill again took over and took the club back League One remaining at Spotland for six years before being shown the door in March 2019 when Brian Barry-Murphy took over.
‘Dale, like the Millers, were relegated at the end of last season and start in League Two in August with Barry-Murphy resigning and former Miller Robbie Stockdale taking over the manager’s chair in July. Last season Matty Lund ended as top scorer with eleven goals.
The Millers and Rochdale last met in the 2019/20 season with the Greater Manchester side taking six points from six, firstly with a one-nil win at the New York Stadium with Aaron Morley scoring the only goal and three-one at Spotland where Ian Henderson scored twice and another from Matthew Lund, Jamie Lindsay scoring a late consolation for the visitors.
Rotherham last won at Spotland in October 2017 when a fifty-seventh minute goal from Richard Wood won the game – this was just the Millers second away win since April 2016.
The pair have met seventy-four times in the league Rotherham winning thirty-four of those to Rochdale’s twenty-six. Four FA Cup games between the teams have seen ‘Dale win two to the Millers’ one with Rotherham winning the only League Cup game they have met in.
Tonight’s game at the Crown Oil Arena kicks-off at 7pm.
