The Official Rochdale Match Thread (Sponsored by Refreshed Pages "for all your having to write the match thread again from scratch needs")

Gills make our second trip northwards this week to take on Rochdale still seeking our first win of the season following a point away at Chesterfield on Tuesday.

Our first half performance at Chessie was so abject that even those posters who normally lean to the positive were appalled. Our passing was wretched, our defence accommodating and our attacking penetration flaccid as we went in at the break fortunate to only be one goal down. Some ranting and raving at halftime seemed to spark the side from their collective coma sufficiently for Ronan Hale to get off the mark for the season courtesy of a fantastic assist from Remeao Hutton. It was nice to see him finally contribute to our cause. A positive ten minute spell aside, there wasn't a great deal to cheer for the 250 hardy souls in the away end. Maybe today?

Following the final whistle there remained an hour or two of transfer shenanigans to take care of as first Eli King was announced on a permanent deal from Cardiff City for an undisclosed fee, and then Zech Obiero followed from Orient on a season-long loan. The two midfielders will bolster an area of the squad where injuries have taken their toll and may provide a creative spark that has been absent for a good while.

Today's opponents, Rochdale, are back in the Football League after a three season absence. The end of their 2025/26 campaign went viral after a late goal saw them on the cusp of automatic promotion only for it to be snatched away by an even later goal for York City who made the leap back to the 92 themselves. Despite the heartbreak that was replayed around the world, the Dale steeled themselves to go on and win the playoffs and return to the fourth tier for the first time since 2022/23.

Since their promotion, head coach Jimmy McNulty has departed for Stockport to be replaced by Ian Watson, fresh from a 2nd placed National League North finish with South Shields. Out went 13 of the promotion winning side, including ex-Gill, David Tutonda, to be replaced with ten permanent signings supplemented with a further five loans. Ian Henderson, like an immovable stone golem, remains at the club, now aged 41. One of the new arrivals is Jonny Smith who spent a mostly injured spell with us last season whilst showing his class when available. He's already off the mark for his new club notching the final goal of a 3-0 midweek win against Shrewsbury that gave the Dale their first points of the season.

Our squad for today will likely contain both Obiero and fellow loanee Jack Daley, with Coleman, Little, Dack, Tabares and Albarus all absent. McKenzie, nursed through the last couple of games with knocks, should be fit to feature as we seek our first win of the season. King, recovering from his own ACL injury that wrecked his 2025/26, won't be ready to feature just yet.

The head to head has us leading by 19 wins to 16 from 54 meetings of the two sides. Our last visit came in February 2023, where we (whisper it) actually managed to win a game courtesy of goals from the Hawk and Lapslie. We're unbeaten on our last three visits to Spotland, offsetting the previous three visits across 2017 and 2018 where we lost on each occasion by a three goal margin. For the highlights it's back to 2009 and a lung-busting solo effort from Curtis Weston to give us a 0-1 win on the final game of the regular season. Just five days later we were back at the same venue for the play-off semi final first leg as we marched towards Wembley and promotion.

Gills should have another decent following in the north-west this afternoon as we seek to break our duck for the season. Rochdale's three defeats from four still leaves them above us in the table, but shows that the are eminently beatable despite their thumping of a poor Shrewsbury in midweek. A season of draws will see us languishing around our current 21st position, definitely not an improvement from when GA took over. He's been well backed again in the transfer market by the Galinson's, it's now his job to form this squad into a cohesive unit that knows, and can execute, their roles. Our resources, even on an allegedly reduced budget should not have this club languishing at the foot of the table, even at this early stage of the season. Most clubs need "time to gel", most clubs have injury problems. We can no longer hide behind excuses, we need to start winning, for how much longer will the failure to do so be tolerated?

Safe travels if you're making the trip today, enjoy the game, and...

COYG!!!