After a trio of home games Town are back on the road this weekend with a short trip over the M62 to take on Rochdale.
Both sides will be looking to return to winning ways after suffering defeat in midweek – Town going down 3-1 at home to Crawley, whilst Rochdale fell to a 2-1 defeat at league leaders Forest Green.Our opponents
Rochdale sit in 18th position on 30 points, five points clear of the drop zone thanks to Oldham's recent revival and come into the game with one win in their past 12 games, a 3-0 triumph over Newport County.
Earlier this season
The Envirovent Stadium played host to a memorable opening day of the season as Town snatched all three points with an injury time Warren Burrell winner.
Luke Armstrong and Alex Pattison hit debut strikes as Town roared into a 2-0 lead inside the opening ten minutes only to be pegged back with goals either side of half-time by Alex Newby and Conor Grant before Burrell's late strike won the day.
Ones to watch
Newby has five goals and two assists from a forward position whilst Corey O'Keefe, who arrived from Mansfield in the summer, is the creative outlet for the Dale, tallying seven assists on the season.
The club did lose top scorer Jake Beesley, who hit seven goals, to Blackpool in the January window as well as midfielder Aaron Morley, who joined Bolton.
Rochdale have former Town-loanee Josh Andrews in their squad and bolstered their ranks by bringing in Luke Charman, Max Clark, Tahvon Campbell, James Ball and Paul Downing last month.
The man in charge
Robbie Stockdale made 75 appearances for Middlesbrough as well as representing Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, West Ham, Hull City, Tranmere and Grimsby in a successful playing career which included five appearances for Scotland.
Although he has had spells as caretaker manager at both Grimsby and Sunderland the Dale job is his first full-time managerial position.
History
Prior to this season, Dale had almost a decade competing at League One level, their longest streak at that level for some time.
Formed in 1907, the club formed part of the new Third Division North in 1921. They made history in 1962 when they became the first lower tier side to reach the League Cup final, although they were ultimately defeated by Norwich City.
It was not until 1969 though that the club earned their first promotion to the third division, where they competed until the 1973/74 season when they were relegated back to the bottom tier. The club narrowly escaped demotion to non-league after both the 1977/78 and 1979/80 seasons.
The turn of the century saw Dale, under manager Keith Hill, begin a period of success and after a couple of playoff heartbreaks they earned promotion for the first time in 41 years after in 2009/10 when they finished third in the table.
Hill's departure to Barnsley triggered a succession of managers at the club over coming seasons that culminated in relegation back to League Two in April 2012. Hill's return to the club resulted n promotion in 2013/14 where the club resided until last season's relegation.
Team news
Saturday will likely come too soon for Rory McArdle, Lewis Richards and Simon Power, though Calum Kavanagh and Ryan Fallowfield could be back in contention having progressed well from recent setbacks.