Although formed in 1907, our paths with Rochdale didn't cross until, along with us, they were founder members of Division Three North in 1921/22.
The first meeting was at Spotland in February with Dale bottom of the table and us 14th (out of 20). Goals from Joe Lees and William Walker earned us the points. It was customary for the reverse fixtures to be played the following week and Dale won their first ever away match in the Football League with goals from Harry Dennison and an own goal from George Greaves. Thomas Rippon scored for us but the game ended on a sour note with Bob Fenwick being dismissed in the last minute for a foul that left visiting striker Reg Owens with a broken leg.
The next five seasons saw Rochdale dominate against us as they won on each visit to Sincil Bank with the only victory we could manage coming at Spotland in April 1926 thanks to a Francis Alford goal. 1926/27 saw a Christmas double for the Lancashire side as Bert Whitehouse scored three and Bobby Hughes and Robert Schofield two apiece in a 7-3 win on December 25th (Reuben Chambers was making his City debut in goal) and Whitehouse scored two at Sincil Bank the following day along with another from Schofield as they won 3-2.
From 1927/28 up until the war though saw a change in fortunes, as it was our turn to dominate with 14 wins and just three defeats in 20 meetings. Our first double came in 1927/28 (3-0 away, 3-1 home), a feat we repeated the following season with both games finishing 2-0.
The first of our seven goalless draws occurred at Sincil Bank on the opening day of 1929/30 whilst the score was one apiece at Spotland later in the season when the game was abandoned at half-time due to thick mud. When it was replayed Dale forward Tommy Tippett scored a hat-trick but to no avail as two goals each from William Ellis and Henry Roberts saw us win 4-3. Just 1,046 witnessed it, the lowest Football League crowd for a match between us.
Frank Pegg scored a hat-trick for us at Sincil Bank in 1930/31 as won 5-0 whilst our title winning season of 1931/32 saw another City double (3-0 home, 5-3 away) but that was not surprising as Dale finished bottom with just 11 points!
Johnny Campbell scored all five for us in a 5-3 home win in November 1936. It is said that Rochdale centre half Andrew Carr asked Campbell to ease up after the fifth to save him getting the sack!
Dan McPhail saved a last minute penalty in our 1-0 away win in 1937/38, in front of 9,074 - the highest Football League crowd between us at Spotland - and we also drew 1-1 there in the FA Cup in front of an even larger crowd (10,920) before winning the replay 2-0.
The final pre-war season saw a 2-2 draw in Lincoln with Dale winning 4-0 at home whilst wartime meetings were restricted to just two in 1945/46 with us winning 3-2 away and losing 2-1 at home.
Once peacetime football resumed we met in five of the first six seasons with honours even at five City wins and four Dale. Roy Finch scored a Christmas Day hat-trick in 1950 as we won 4-2 whilst a Sincil Bank record crowd of 13,646 the following season saw two Bob Gibson goals give us victory in our final meeting until the 1960's.
We were companions in applying for re-election in 1965/66 with us completing the double and 1966/67 when Dale completed the double, their 2-0 win at Sincil Bank in January being their first away win of the season. We continued the trend in 1967/68 with another double although we both avoided the bottom four places. Clive Ford scored both our goals in the 2-1 away success, the last time we were to win at Spotland until 1993!
1968/69 saw Rochdale's only promotion to date with a goalless draw at Sincil Bank (one of 11 Dale had in the season) and a 2-1 home win thanks to goals from Tony Buck and Dennis Butler with Jack Lewis on target for us.
They returned to the basement in 1974/75 with two Peter Graham goals and one from Dick Krzywicki giving us a 3-0 win in the first meeting. The same two scored one apiece at Sincil Bank in our 1975/76 championship season as we won 2-0 but could only draw 0-0 away, one of just seven games we failed to score in. We were back in Division 4 in 1979/80 with both games drawn. David Esser scored for them in the 1-1 draw at Spotland ending a run of five games in which they had failed to score. They then went another nine games without a goal including a draw at Sincil Bank! The 1980/81 season saw another 3-0 home win (Phil Neale, Gordon Hobson and Trevor Peake) although Mark Hilditch won the game for Rochdale at Spotland.
The next meetings were in 1986/87 when Dale were amongst the favourites to be the first side automatically relegated from the Football League, a fate the eventually befall us with Dale finishing 21st. Both games finished 1-1 with just 1,357, the lowest Football League crowd between us, here at Sincil Bank.
Future Imp Dean Walling was a Dale scorer in the 2-2 draw in the first meeting once we returned to the League whilst David Clarke scored in the first minute as we won 4-1 at Sincil Bank in April 1989, our last run before a very depressing sequence of 12 defeats and 10 draws in 24 League meetings!
The 1989/90 season saw three defeats as we lost 3-0 away in a Second Round FA Cup tie and seven days later lost 1-0 in the League before a 2-1 home defeat later in the season. Grant Brown saw red in our 1-0 away defeat in August 1991, Andy Flounders scoring from the resultant penalty. He also scored along with Steve Whitehall (one of six goals he scored against us for Dale) and Andy Milner in the 3-0 win at Sincil Bank that season. Flounders scored three at Spotland in December 1992 as we lost 5-1 but the following season Tony Loughlan scored the goal that brought us our first win there since 1967.
The 1995/96 season saw Rochdale as our first opponents under Steve Wicks and they went home with the points 2-1 although they returned to Sincil Bank two weeks later in the Auto Windscreens Shield when two goals each from Darren Huckerby and David Johnson saw us home 4-3 for the only victory under Wicks' management. Our only 3-3 draw occurred at Spotland later in the season. Matt Carbon and Gareth Ainsworth scored two of our goals whilst our nemesis Steve Whitehall scored a penalty for Dale. Mark Stuart, two at the right end and an own goal for us, scored the other three goals but whether he claimed the match ball is unknown!
The 1996/97 season saw a Dale double by 2-0 with the defeat at Sincil Bank thanks to late goals from Keith Hill and Mark Stuart on the final day of the season costing us a play-off spot whilst Lee Thorpe and Colin Alcide goals finally saw us win at home at the ninth attempt, 2-0, in March 1998. The next three meetings all ended 1-1 before we lost 3-1 at Spotland in April 2001 but since then results have swung back in our favour.
It didn't seem that way there in November 2001 as Dale led through Richard Jobson and Keiron Durkan goals as the game entered its last minute but strikes by Tony Battersby and Steve Holmes earned us a point. A crowd of 5,849 were at Sincil Bank for the final home match of the season and with the Imps on the verge of administration, possibly our last ever Football League match on home soil. Paul Simpson cancelled out Lee Thorpe's opener in the 1-1 draw.
The Club survived and by chance Dale were our first visitors in 2002/03 when Simon Yeo and Dene Cropper scored their first goals for us in a 2-0 win. Ben Futcher scored a late winner later in the season as we completed the double.
The next three seasons saw us draw 1-1 at Sincil Bank. Mickael Antoine-Curier set a Football League record by playing for six clubs in 2003/04 and he scored for Dale in Lincoln in September, a week after playing against us for Kidderminster. Marcus Richardson equalised for us in a game that saw the visitors have Lee McEvilly sent off. Jamie Clarke (86) and Rickie Lambert (88) hit late equalisers in the next two seasons to cancel out Matt Bloomer and Gareth McAuley goals respectively.
Away from home three goals in nine second half minutes (Yeo one and Taylor-Fletcher two) saw us home 3-0 in 2003/04 whilst we went down 3-1 the following season despite Dale playing with 10 men for 67 minutes after Ernie Cooksey was sent off and they were reduced to 10 men as well in 2005/06 with Gareth Griffiths being dismissed after 31 minutes. Cooksey scored this time but it was only a consolation after Marvin Robinson and Nat Brown had put us two up.
In 2006/07 we recorded our best ever win over Rochdale by thrashing them 7-1 at Sincil Bank in October. Jamie Forrester (3) and two each from Mark Stallard and Jeff Hughes did the damage; Allan Goodall netting the visitors only reply. Last minute goals by Chris Dagnall and Adam Rundle gained some revenge at Spotland.
The 2007/08 season saw us complete our ninth League double over Dale with late goals from Forrester and Lee Frecklington securing a 2-0 win a Spotland whilst another Forrester effort and Danny Hone's first League goal helped us to a 2-1 success in the return fixture at Sincil Bank five weeks later.
The two teams fought out another 1-1 draw at Sincil Bank last season with Hone equalising late on after Adam Rundle had given Dale the lead whilst the teams also shared the points at Spotland with the game finishing two apiece. Earlier this season, table-topping Dale came from behind to win 3-1 at Sincil Bank; Chris Herd's first goal for the Club being cancelled out by the free-scoring visitors.
By Gary Parle, with thanks to Mark Wilbraham
