Rochdale A.F.C.
Rochdale Association Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed ‘The Dale’, they have played home matches at Spotland Stadium since 1920 and contest derby matches with nearby Oldham Athletic.
Founded in 1907, Rochdale entered the Lancashire Combination and after securing promotion out of Division Two in 1909–10 they won the Division One title in 1910–11 and 1911–12. They then switched to the Central League, before being invited into the Football League when the Third Division North was created in 1921. The club remained in the division for 47 years but were relegated out of the new nationwide Third Division in 1959. They reached the League Cup final in 1962 and secured promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1968–69. Relegated in 1974, Rochdale remained in the fourth tier for 36 seasons after unsuccessful play-off campaigns in 2002, 2008 and 2009. The club finally secured promotion in 2009–10 and following relegation in 2012 were again promoted out of League Two in 2013–14, but were relegated back to League Two in 2020-21.
Rochdale played 36 consecutive seasons in the Football League’s bottom division from 1974 to 2010, the longest time any team has been in the bottom division of the League, with some even derisively calling it “the Rochdale Division”.[2] The club has the lowest average position of all the clubs which have existed continuously in the Football League since its expansion to four divisions in 1921–22 (76th) and since its expansion to 92 clubs in 1950–51 (79th). Additionally, the club holds the distinction of having played the most seasons in the English Football League without either reaching the top two tiers (91 seasons as of 2018–19) or being relegated to the National League.
The club reached the League Cup Final in 1962. This was the first time a club from the bottom league division had reached the final of a major competition – where they lost to Norwich City.
During its history, the club has had three promotions and four relegations, with promotion coming in 1969 and 2010 and 2014 and relegation in 1959, 1974, 2012 and 2021. The 1959 relegation followed the 1958 restructuring which saw the combination of the two Third Division sections into the Third Division and Fourth Division. In the restructuring, Rochdale managed to secure a spot in the Third Division but was relegated at the end of the season to the now lowest Fourth Division.
