Supporters Trust donates £1,300 for pre-season tour

Photo: Jan Harwood

Rochdale Assistant Manager David Flitcroft receives the cheque from a Dale Trust representative

Rochdale Supporters Trust has donated £1,330 to Dale management duo Keith Hill and David Flitcroft for the squad to spend on their upcoming pre-season training camp in Marbella.

The Trust was delighted to hand over a cheque to assistant manager Flitcroft for the sum, which was raised at the club’s end of season awards night.

“The players, myself and Keith all had a fantastic night at the end of season awards,” said Flitcroft. “The players enjoyed mixing with the fans and I know that they will be thankful for this contribution from the Trust.”

Flitcroft also spoke about how the players and staff will be doing everything they can to help the Trust raise funds for the Bowlee training ground project.

“It is so important that we get this facility up to scratch,” said the Assistant boss. “We managed to train there for just one day and we could already tell it just isn’t fit for purpose.

“It’s vital for the next stage of our development that the players have a base where they can meet up, train and eat together every day without the worry of not knowing where they will be from one day to the next.”

Earlier this month almost 300 people packed into the Dale Bar for one of the best Rochdale AFC end of season awards evenings in years.

Fans got the chance to mix with the players and the Dale management duo before they embarked on another play-off journey and Dale songs went on long into the night.

A spokesperson for the Dale Trust said: “A lot of hard work went into the end of season awards night but I think that everyone that was there will testify that the hard work paid off. It was fantastic night and we would like to thank Keith Hill, David Flitcroft and all of the players for being there and for getting so involved.

“We are delighted to be able to hand over this contribution to their pre-season programme. It’s the lease the players deserve after another fantastic season.

“The Trust will now be putting its collective heads together over the summer for next season’s events, which will be geared towards raising funds for the Bowlee project. We hope that all of our members will help us to raise this money and anyone that has any ideas should not hesitate to contact us. Like David Flitcroft has said, this will be such an important facility for the players and it will be a proud moment when the club can finally say that it has its own training ground.”

As expected top-scorer Adam Le Fondre, League Two’s best left back Tom Kennedy and young wing wizard Will Buckley cleaned up during the awards.

Le Fondre won both the SMAC player of the season and Rochdale Supporters Trust player of the season. Buckley collected the Wilson Trophy for most improved young player and was also named the Dale Dragons young player of the season. Kennedy took the honour of being named the club’s best player by his fellow professionals and also picked up the official club website message board player of the season.

Simon Ramsden was named club player of the season for his tremendous dedication both in training and on the pitch, while Joe Reidy won the Maureen Peacock Youth Player Award.

One of the highlights of the night was the Frank Bishop goal of the season award, with all five of the nominated goals shown on the big screen. Fans and players alike got the chance to relive Tom Kennedy’s free kick against Chesterfield, Adam Le Fondre’s strike at Gillingham, Chris Dagnall’s superb volley at Shrewsbury and Adam Rundle’s wonder goal at Lincoln. The players waited expectantly before Ciaran Toner’s blockbuster at Aldershot was the last to be shown and the Northern Irishman won the award with his only goal of the season.

Supporters Trust members also played a part in the evening as Liam Tomlinson presented the player of the month awards for March and April to Adam Le Fondre and Tom Kennedy respectively, before David Clough was named Trust member of the year for his sterling fund raising efforts throughout the season, not least when he generated hundreds of pounds selling Trust calendars to his Goldbond members.

After the awards were through Keith Hill and David Flitcroft took to the stage to say a few words and to conduct the raffle, with prizes including a wonderful aerial shot of Spotland showing Adam Le Fondre’s goal against Exeter, two signed and framed shirts, a pair of Tom Kennedy’s boots and a set of motivational DVDs that are shown to the players before games.