Andy Thorpe is our special guest speaker when Dale play Swindon Town on 18th March.
He will have a vast memories of his time at Rochdale and is sure to be most entertaining prior to kick off at the Club’s hospitality event.
DOB: 15th September 1960
Dale debut: Edinburgh (pre-season friendly July 1999)
Last game: AFC Wimbledon (21st November 2020)
Also played for: Stockport County 1978-1987 & 1989-92, Tranmere Rovers 1987-1989
Time at Dale: I was the Physio for the first team, Youth Team and Reserve games, where I was on my own with no assistance doing the warm-ups plus driving the kit van. There were no protein drinks or anything like that and players had to provide their own food.
When Steve Parkin first gave me the job, my first day at the Club was pre-season training in Edinburgh, where we were staying in an Army Camp in the barracks, much later after that we travelled to Tenerife and Portugal, which was far better. When I first started, there was no kit man, we had someone called Anne who used to come in two days a week to wash the kit.
I worked under eight Managers namely Steve Parkin, John Hollins, Paul Simpson, Alan Buckley, Keith Hill, Steve Eyre, John Coleman and Brian Barry-Murphy.
Favourite memories of playing for Dale: The first time we got to Wembley is up there as is getting achieving promotion from League Two, it’s those special times that you live for in football including Manchester United away, Tottenham at home when we scored in the last minute to go to Wembley and the Newcastle United game
But on reflection, I must admit that one of my best experiences here, linked directly to my time as physio involves Chris Dagnall. He had a cruciate ligament injury and needed an operation so I was doing the rehab. The earliest return from something like that is usually six months but often longer. With Chris, everything went for him, he was young, naturally fit and strong. He recovered very quickly and after five months he was ready to go and had done two weeks of training with the first team. I think we played Rotherham United and Keith Hill said to me ‘I want him on the bench, because we need to win this game. Is it a risk?’
I said ‘yes, of course it’s a risk!’ but we put him on the bench. It was 1-1 when he came on with 22 minutes to go. I remember his first tackle was a crunching challenge and there were all sorts going through my head, mostly worry! But I don’t know what I was worrying about, there was no need he went on to get a nine minute hat-trick and we won 4-1, which put us just a point outside the play-offs. It could have been the worst day, but it turned out to be the best.
What are you doing since leaving Dale?: I now work privately at JPR Sports Therapy and PhysioWorks.
I had thoughts of going private for a number of years but never got round to doing it. I tried to do it some time earlier alongside my work at Rochdale AFC but it didn’t work out. Being on furlough gave me chance to think a bit more and to be honest, I didn’t miss all the long trips. I’d been travelling for 43 years as a physio and a footballer and it grinds you down at times. We only get six weeks off a year during the close season but if any player finished the season with an injury then I still had to come in to the Club to organise rehab-I really miss the football now but it was a great decision for my mental health.
Hospitality appearances with former players have been arranged for the following matches:
April 7th: Walsall – Shaun Reid
April 15th: Bradford City – Paul Butler
April 18th: Tranmere Rovers – Wayne Goodison
April 29th: Sutton – Lee McEvilly/Kevin Townson