Rochdale is to the north-east of Manchester (a little north of Oldham), on the way out towards Leeds.  It’s a road journey of about 170 miles from Nailsworth which is a journey time of 3 hours 10 minutes in normal traffic.

By Supporters Club Coach.  For full details of Away Travel including pick up times: – look at FGR Away Travel – Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club (fgrsc.com)

Away Travel 2024/25 | WE ARE FGR

Tickets and travel | Rochdale (A) | WE ARE FGR

Visitor Match Tickets | Rochdale Association Football Club (rafcshop.co.uk)

These pages are in the process of being updated at the moment – bear with us!  For further information, including pickup point locations see Away travel arrangements 24/25 – Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club (fgrsc.com)

Book your coach ticket with your match ticket from FGR (a discount for FGR Supporters Club members) but note that you need to call FGR Reception to get the coach discount (phone 0333 123 1889 Monday to Friday, between 9am and 3pm).  Please try to book early.

By Car – Rochdale’s Crown Oil Arena (OL11 5DR for Sat Navs).  Parking close to the stadium isn’t especially easy.  There is some street parking pretty close – try Willbutts Lane postcode OL11 5AY – but also a number of matchday parking restrictions.  Oulder Hill Community School Matchday Car Park charge about £5 a car (a 10 minute uphill walk to the stadium) postcode OL11 5EF

By Train – Same day return travel by train is tricky.  The last train back to Stroud from Rochdale on the day is the 17.21 (the station is a couple of miles from the ground).  The journey time is around 4 hours, involves either 3 or 4 changes, and will cost over £120 for an adult return.  There is an 18.25 train back from Manchester but, for most/all, it doesn’t look as though rail travel on the day is a runner.

Rochdale, known as ‘the Dale’, play their fixtures at Spotland Stadium (also known as the Crown Oil Arena for sponsorship reasons).  Spotland has a capacity of 10,249 and has been Rochdale’s home for over a century.

During the 1990’s and 2000’s, three new stands were built which transformed the stadium.  The last of which to be built was the Willbutts Lane Stand (away fans are located on one side of this stand).  The Sandy Lane End is the only remaining terrace, but it is now covered.

Rochdale have kept a constant squad size so far, with 7 players leaving and 7 joining the club over the summer.  The incoming players are as follows;

Connor McBride (Gateshead)
Tobi Adebayo-Rowling (Notts County)
Finlay Armstrong (Fleetwood Town)
Tarryn Allarakhia (Wealdstone)
Aidan Barlow (Eastleigh)
Sam Beckwith (Maidenhead United)
Aaron Henry (Charlton Athletic)

Rochdale’s opening season game saw them travel to newly promoted Boston.  Two goals from Devante Rodney in the 1st half plus a 3rd from Ian Henderson in 2nd half stoppage time saw the Dale comfortable 3-0 winners. In their second match at home to Dagenham Rochdale had to come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw, the goal scorer this time being Tarryn Allarakhia. In their third match Rochdale lost away to York 1-0. So they are currently in 12th place with 4 points.

There was a time in Greater Manchester when people referred to League 2 as ‘the Rochdale division’, because the club spent so much time there.  Rochdale still have the distinction of having spent the longest of any club in the bottom tier of the EFL.  In fact, Rochdale had only ever played in the 3rd or 4th tier of English football over 102 years.  Up until 2023 the club had played the most seasons in the EFL without ever reaching the top 2 tiers nor being relegated to the National League!  But 2023 saw them drop to the 5th tier for the first time.  They have been dogged with financial issues and aborted takeover bids.  But in May 2024, the club was bought by local businessman Sir Peter Ogden, co-founder of one of the UK’s largest computer businesses, Computacenter.  Dale fans will be hoping that their new billionaire owner will be heralding a new dawn.

Will new owner, Peter Ogden, be Rochdale’s saviour?

Rochdale is a product of the Industrial Revolution.  The manufacture of woollen cloth, was locally important as far back as the 1500s. At that time the textile industry was rooted in the domestic system, but towards the end of the 18th century mills powered by water started to appear.  Water power was replaced by steam power in the 19th century fuelled by local coal and Rochdale became one of the world’s most prominent cotton processing towns.

Rochdale is 10 miles north-east of Manchester’s centre but very much part of the Manchester metropolis.  It is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the country.  In 2021, the town of Rochdale’s population was 111,261, and its ethnic makeup was 57.2% White, 34.3% Asian, 2.6% Mixed, 3.4% Black, 2.1% Other and 0.5% Arab.  One estimate claims that more than 40% of children in the Rochdale borough are living in poverty.

In recent years, Rochdale’s politics have caught the eye.  Liberal/Liberal Democrat, Cyril Smith, was the MP for 2 decades in the 20th century.  When the Labour candidate was suspended for a by-election in March 2024, the seat was won by George Galloway.  Galloway was noticeably absent from the count when Labour re-took the seat in July 2024.

Rochdale has also made its name for child abuse.  Former MP Cyril Smith was acknowledged as a prolific child abuser after his death in 2012.  A 2024 report on child sex exploitation in Rochdale from 2004 to 2013 found that there was “compelling evidence” of widespread abuse, and that Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council had failed to properly investigate these cases, leaving girls “at the mercy of their abusers”. While there were successful prosecutions, the report said that the investigations only “scraped the surface” of what had happened, and that many abusers had gone unpunished.

The Cenotaph in front of Rochdale’s Town Hall, the latter widely recognised as one of the finest municipal buildings in the country.