We have invited Darren Ryan to speak at hospitality entertaining diners pre-match plus Willie Burns will be guest of honour for the popular Exiles Day.
Darren signed in 1994 and was leading top scorer for the Reserves in 1994-95 with two hat-tricks to his name plus netted five against Scunthorpe Reserves in the following season. In total he made 31 appearances, scoring 2 goals for the first team over two seasons with a number of starts on the left flank at the end of his first. Best memories of his time at Rochdale is the FA Cup replay win at Darlington when the payers knew they were drawn against Liverpool in the FA Cup 3rd Round and a day out at Anfield, unfortunately the result wasn’t too clever. Another great moment was the Auto Windscreen Shield run losing to Carlisle United 3-5 in the two legged semi-final and playing with good players and characters in Shaun Reid, Paul Butler, Dave Thompson, Steve Whitehall.
Willie, who was a stalwart of the Dale defence 1989-91 making seventy two appearances, scoring two goals, was guest of honour last season for the Exiles match against Barrow and in an entertaining question and answer session, he covered Dale’s run to the FA Cup 5th Round where they lost narrowly to the eventual finalists, Crystal Palace and a remarkable match at Turf Moor when he and Steve O’Shaughnessy were both dismissed leaving Dale to hold on to a 1-0 victory despite finishing the game with nine men.
For more information about hospitality packages, email Matt.Davies@rochdaleafc.co.uk and for news from ex-players, we’re on www.rochdalefpa.com