Rochdale vs Chester City - match preview

Ready for action: John Doolan returns from the suspension in time for the game against Chester

Following Tuesday night's exhilarating Carling Cup win against Stoke on penalties, Rochdale return to the bread and butter tomorrow, Saturday 18 August, hoping to kick start their league campaign at home to Chester, the first home league match of the Centenary Season. Competition for places is high in Keith Hill's side, giving him a happy selection headache ahead of the game, whilst the fans will be doing their bit to inspire the team in black and white to their first points of the campaign.

If Rochdale are not fully up for this game already, as they are almost certain to be following Tuesday night's drama, then they will be chomping at the bit by kick-off having being confronted by the fan's 'wall of black and white' upon their emergence from the tunnel. The 'wall' initiative has been put forward by fans from the unofficial rochdaleafc.com website, who want to see everyone in the ground wearing black and white to inspire the players for the first home league game of the Centenary season. They are urging everyone who turns up to the game on Saturday to wear something black and white in line with the team's new centenary edition shirt. This does not mean that fans without their own new shirt are being left out, a black or white t-shirt will do - anything that adds to the sense that the fans are fully behind the team in their centenary year.

For the game itself, Keith Hill welcomes back three players from suspension and of those, John Doolan in particular will be pushing hard for a place in Hill's starting eleven. The Dale boss is keeping his cards close to his chest but he hinted that as long as the players perform, they will keep their shirts. This could mean then that Doolan has to make do with a place on the bench following the fine performances of the Dale midfielders against Stoke; Gary Jones showed the drive and determination needed to lead the side in the face of higher league opposition, whilst David Perkins continues to impress and has now added goal scoring to his range of talents, banging in the equaliser that saw the tie move to extra time.

The Dale boss said: "The Chester game will be a tough fixture there's no question about that; it will be totally different from the Stoke game.

"We want competition for places and John Doolan and the rest of the lads know that there's competition for places here but ultimately you keep your shirt by performing and winning football matches and everybody else has got to be patient."

The other two players to return from suspension are Callum Warburton and Kallum Higginbotham but the two youngsters are unlikely to feature.

One of the main factors in Dale's eventual victory on Tuesday was the fitness of their team. They ran hard at their opponents from first minute to last and eventually wore down what at first appeared to be a solid Stoke defence, with the fitness of one or two of the Stoke players playing a part in Dale's extra time goal.

Keith Hill said: "We know how fit the players are because we've had a great pre-season, and that's included the lads who didn't play against Stoke, but sometimes a bit of apprehension sets in and they look tired and they play tired, with a little bit of fear. That comes off the back of losing games - there's a bit of self doubt - but when they get that self belief like they showed against Stoke, they can run through brick walls.

"We know how fit the players are because we have them monitored all the time. The Sports Scientist analyses the results and we know that they are really in top form, for our league and possible for leagues higher as well."

Like his counter-part, Chester boss Bobby Williamson has a virtual full squad to choose from, with Richie Partridge returning to training after missing their Carling Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest in midweek.

Chester faired slightly better than Dale in their opening fixture last weekend, holding Chesterfield, one of the sides relegated from League One last term, to a 0-0 draw at home, but unlike Dale they are yet to produce a goal thus far having drawn with Forest by the same scoreline after extra time and then getting knocked out on penalties.

Matches between Rochdale and Chester have been tight in recent years. There was only one goal scored between the two sides last term. Dale's on loan striker Louis Dodds scored an early winner when Dale visited Chester in March, whilst the corresponding fixture at Spotland had finished goalless, back in October last year when Steve Parkin was still in charge of Rochdale.

Rochdale vs Chester - kick off 3pm at Spotland, Saturday 18 August.

Teams:
Rochdale (from): Spencer, Ramsden, D'Laryea, McArdle, Kennedy, Muirhead, Jones, Perkins, Rundle, Murray, Dagnall, Crooks, Le Fondre, Watt, Russell, Prendergast, Rigby, Thompson, Doolan.

Chester (from): Danby, Vaughan, Butler, Linwood, Wilson, Partridge, Hughes, Grant, Ellison, Murphy, Lowndes, Hand, Holroyd, Yeo, Roberts, Ward, Rutherford, Sandwith.