Real Madrid come to Rochdale! No really! Find out how that happened here. And then there’s the small matter of trying to retain the Premier League title, it’s on the cards too with Tottenham and Arsenal fighting to keep up.
We didn’t really fancy ourselves in the last round against Bayern, but against the odds we won over 2 legs, it’s going to be a tough ask to do it again, we’ll be happy with not getting hammered and embarassed! We start of alright, having a couple chances thwarted, and hold out until a controversial penalty is awarded to Madrid as their No.10 dives in the area. Their No.9 buries it and we’re behind at the break.
We have the better of the second half, creating more chances, and after a lot of industry and effort, but not much substance or style, Madrid break away in the final minute to double their lead, 2 away goals and we have an uphill task in the 2nd leg. Betts, returning from injury as we fight off interest from Villa, Spurs and Blackburn, gets back in the England Squad.
We take heart that Real needed a penalty and a 90th minute goal to beat us, and go back to league duties with a 3-2 win over Barnsley, a draw with Leeds, then make a crushing statement seeing off league chasers Tottenham 6-0! No dodgy own goals this time just great performances from key players.
It gives us a good boost as we go to Spain and hope to give a decent account of ourselves. It starts of brilliantly with Chris Myers scoring and we have an away goal, one more needed! Madrid get themselves back into it quickly as their No.9 get clean through and slides it past Buxton to equalise. We have a great chance to retake the league as Carter rounds the keeper but somehow misses!!!
Madrid stifle us in the second half and almost kill the game completely, limiting us to just a couple of half chances, creating little more themselves as they see out the 90 minutes. Our first foray into Europe is over, but we’ve played two of the worlds biggest teams and over four games lost only once. Not bad for little Rochdale.
We’re straight back into cup action in the FA Cup, a tournament we’ve perhaps not done as well as we could have, getting to the quarter finals a few seasons back being the best we’ve done. We host Cardiff, and give some of the squad players a run out after our Spanish trip. They give us a good show as we register our biggest win, 7-1. Reserve graduate Brian McPherson is pushing his way into the team more too, playing with the England U21’s and picking up young player of the month!
Next up Swindon at the County Ground, they’ve made a lot of good signings and have been tussling with Spurs and Arsenal for 2nd place. They bring us down to earth with a massive crash, reminding us that we’ve still got a job to do in the league as they walk over us, 4-0! It’s a bit of a kick up the backside and it seems to do the business as we entertain Arsenal, Betts giving us a cracking one man show scoring a hat-trick as we win 4-0 despite playing a lot of the game with 10 men after Myers sees red.
We’ve got Swindon again, in the FA Cup this time, and get some revenge by easing past them 2-0. The board have been on at us to strengthen the squad and sign a “big name player”, so we go for Paul Robinson, who joined QPR last season as they got relegated. Not a “big name player” as such, but at £750,000 is now our record signing, going straight into the team and helping us beat last seasons bogey team Blackburn 3-2 with a last minute winner, after being 1-0 and 2-1 down. Way to make yourself popular with the fans straight away!
There are some other big signings as Craig Hignett goes from title chasing to relegation saving, going to Liverpool from Tottenham, Steve McManaman goes from one relegation threatened club to another, making way for Hignett at Liverpool to join Wednesday.
In an awful match against Villa we receive two red cards, Betts and Myers again, as we go down 2-1 with 9 men, leaving us slightly short against Arsenal in the next round of the FA Cup with Robinson and Tinkler cup tied too. In a cagey affair lacking in quality we grind out a flattering 3-1 win.
With a couple of sending’s off, some bookings and some injuries, we struggle with half of our first team out, having to do with out Betts, Carter, Collins, Mulrain and Myers, and lose to Derby 2-0. The words “crisis” and “reel in” are being thrown about as we go to Blackburn in the Quarter finals of the FA Cup. With the return of Betts, Myers and Carter we thrash them 6-2, putting to rest our bogey team once and for all, silencing the doomsayers and draw Liverpool in the next round.
Our lead at the top is 7 points following those couple of defeats, but our three main chasers, Tottenham, Arsenal and Swindon have failed to really take advantage of our slips, swapping 2nd, 3rd and 4th between them and we pull away again with back to back 4-0 wins over West Ham and Oldham, before again slipping up losing 2-1 at Newcastle! Betts again showing why he’s the best rated player in the league and England’s no 9.
We go into our first ever FA Cup Semi-Final with some confidence though, against a Liverpool team that have struggled this season but managed to claw themselves out of the relegation zone to 14th having been way adfrift early in the season, but they’re still at risk of going down. It’s a fairly scrappy affair the first half isn’t great to watch but it’s a goal apiece at half time. In the second half, Jamie Redknapp steps up and we don’t have an answer to him as he scores and leads them in a man of the match performance to dump us out one round before Wembley, 4-1!
So it’s just the league again now, the board and myself are dissappointed, but it’s still another Premier League crown which we wrap up with 3 games to go as neither of the chasing three can capitalise on our slight downturn in form as we draw with Brighton and Everton, Arsenal and Swindon both losing and only Tottenham keeping pace with us.
We go to Man City knowing a win coupled with less than a win from Spurs sees us lift the title. This time we see off City with a 3-0 win, after not sealing the title last season at Maine Road and having to wait another week, and Captain Howard lifts the trophy as Spurs only manage a draw with West Ham. Champions again as Rochdale prove it wasn’t just a fluke one off. We’re here to stay!
The last three games are fairly inconsequential as we draw with Liverpool and Man Utd, Liverpool having completed a stunning turn around of fortunes to see them come from rock bottom of the league with 2 points from 7 games to finish 7th, one point ahead of Everton! Sheffield Wednesday are now the rock bottom club and it shows as we give our finge players a run out against them and David Moyes scores a brace of own goals as we win 4-0!
Wednesday go down in 20th, taking with them Chris Bart-Williams, Steve McManaman and England stalwart Peter Atherton amongst others, joining them in Division 1 are Brighton who just couldn’t compete having been promoted last season, and shockingly Blackburn Rovers, who haven’t really been the same since Shearer left. Bargains ahoy as Warhurst, Barmby, Sutton and Roy Keane all drop with them!
In Division 1 it’s been all over the place, Grimsby and Southampton have been 1st and 2nd for most of the season, but a terrible run of form, winning just 1 of their last 8 games sees them drop out of the playoffs completely, as Southampton almost throw it away too in the last few games, just scraping into the playoffs. They make amends for the two previous seasons choking, this time winning the playoff final to return to the Premier League, along with Nottingham Forest who had a great run in and Bournemouth who steadily climbed to the summit and take the title. Chelsea unsurprisingly are stone cold last and go down with Tranmere and Brentford.
In Division 3 Exeter win back to back promotions having rejoined the league and go up to Division 2 with Cardiff and Chester. Southend fail to escape the drop out of the football league with Steve Bruce leading the line, finishing well adrift.
Bologna beat Southampton in the Anglo-Italian Cup final, and there are surprise winners of the Cup Winners Cup as FK Austria beat Dynamo Bucharest. Athletico Bilbao beat Sampdoria in the UEFA Cup, and PSV defeat our vanquishers Real Madrid in the European Cup Final. Aston Villa lift the FA Cup seeing off our Semi-Final victors Liverpool 2-0.
Kenny Betts is the Supporters player of the season as well as the leagues, Robbie Fowler pips Paul Merson by 1 goal and takes home the golden boot, Betts doing well to have caught up so much having missed 7 weeks early in the season and I finally, begrudgingly it seems, get a Manager of the Year trophy. Big transfer news as Jamie Redknapp goes to Marseille. Will liverpool struggle again next season without him?
On to season 6, can Rochdale win 3 titles in a row to fully establish themselves as a force in the Premier League? With so many big names going abroad or dropping a division I excpect there’s going to be big movements in the transfer market. Should we keep with the players that have done us proud so far or strengthen with some bargains and try to do even better in the cups, perhaps even getting to a final, let alone lifting one? Find out how we get on next week!
I4NI 
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