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Reply | Should he stay or should he go?
at 16:48 17 May 2025
But if he’s ‘probably’ not going to improve and achieve what we’d want him to then what exactly is the point of giving him more time? |
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Reply | Should he stay or should he go?
at 14:34 17 May 2025
History isn’t being rewritten you’re just deciding to bring up a completely separate point.
I’m comparing two managers after they’ve failed in their first go at the play offs and how the fans felt about them and, in particular, whether the fans had belief in their ability to get us up. Nowhere do I say Hill was always beloved and trusted. Nowhere do I say there were periods he wasn’t criticised or people doubted he could do it. |
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Reply | Should he stay or should he go?
at 14:20 17 May 2025
“Can McNulty achieve all that? I have serious doubts based on the evidence. He’s probably earned the chance to try though”
This is the bit I don’t understand and fundamentally disagree with. Why has he earned the chance to try when you’ve already highlighted the attributes he is missing and have serious doubts he’ll be able to do what’s necessary?
What the hell is the point in continuing?
Despite the fact he hasn’t even tried to sign the profile of player you say is required (and it’s been clear to anyone we have been missing that midfield presence of a Taylor or Cavanagh or Jones) why would he all of a sudden next season go and get one? It’s not been about failed recruitment - as you’ve said this type of player isn’t even on his radar.
Why after 2 seasons of rigid formation and sticking to a system week in week out will McNulty all of a sudden change his approach next year? Why can you possibly think he’s now going to become adaptable with Plans B and C in his back pocket when required?
He’s shown us who he is and what sort of manager he’s about. You seem to imagine he’s magically going to become the manager you want him to be - rather than accept him for the manager that he is. |
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Reply | Should he stay or should he go?
at 09:23 17 May 2025
You want to bring up the play offs of the past OK great - when we lost in the final at Wembley how many people were calling for Keith Hill to go as he bottled the big game and had reached the limit of what he was capable of? That he would never be able to motivate the team to get us over the line? Or - were people saying we had a great season, tried our best but on the day were outperformed by a team with somewhat higher resources? That time we had a manager who talked us up, who tried to get the fans to believe rather than insist we weren’t good enough or in the right place to go up. Who played attractive, attacking football which people enjoyed watching. Who played with heart and grit and determination. We had a manager who most fans thought just needed a bit more time and resources which if given we’d have an incredible chance at promotion.
Contrast all that with what we have now. You have learnt nothing from the Hill era with your small time mentality that failures of the past means we should be happy now with failure again. McNulty inspires absolutely none of the confidence and hope that Hill did and without those things it’s very very difficult to support a club like Rochdale. McNulty needs to go. |
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Reply | Should he stay or should he go?
at 22:10 16 May 2025
I think there’s a strong comparison between McNulty and Gareth Southgate with England.
He was a nice guy manager, well liked by the players.
But he was often too negative and defensive in the games that mattered, making bizarre substitutions which lost us the momentum. When the pressure was on, he just didn’t seem capable of pulling us over the line.
But - because he had got near to success, which was an improvement over what had come before - it was ignored that actually he had failed to do the really hard bit and actually win something. So he was given more chances, but his shortcomings weren’t going anywhere and the inevitable happened time after time.
I see in all honesty the same happening with McNulty. He won’t go now and next season we’ll probably finish somewhere in the play off zone again. It will be another frustrating season with points lost from winning positions, interminably dull football on far too many occasions, and when it really matters he won’t be able to get the team battling their way to success.
But because a play off finish SEEMS successful for little old Rochdale, he’ll be given a chance again the season after. I fear one or even two seasons of falling at the final hurdle will be necessary before the Ogdens hand is forced and (like the FA) they bow to the pressure to relieve Mr Nice Guy from duty.
However - what is obvious NOW is that McNulty won’t get us out of this division. We will waste one, two or however many more seasons with him in charge but that fundamental truth won’t change.
If you actually think about it - whilst finishing 4th SOUNDS decent, it’s only decent in League Two where 4th is just outside the automatic slots. In this league it’s a million miles away. We finished 28 points behind Barnet. In League Two terms - 28 points off an automatic spot places you 21st. So he’s either got to turn us into a winning machine next term in order to go up automatically or learn how to turn it on when it matters and through force of will get a team to win in some really important games. I honestly don’t know what anyone has seen of McNulty in the last two seasons to suggest he is capable of either. |
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Reply | TVOS Preview - Rochdale v Southend United (Playoffs)
at 22:31 15 May 2025
Something almost inevitable about that. You always felt that this team had it in them to crumble. The fighting attitude and never say die approach from Southend is completely absent from our team. That comes from the manager. I doubt very much that after a 4th place finish JM will be going anywhere but make no mistake - we will never get out of this division with him in charge. |
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Reply | Braintree Match Thread
at 14:25 6 May 2025
Whilst I can understand how a game like Braintree can go the way it did - nothing was at stake, the hard work securing play offs already achieved - it is still worrying to me that at this stage of the season we can put in such a poor performance. We had very little going forward and both of their goals were exceedingly sloppy. I'd hoped that we had moved beyond playing like that and my worry is that we can easily play like that again in the upcoming fixture(s). It would have given me more confidence to have gone into the Southend game on the back of a decent performance/win. |
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Reply | Refwatch - Solihull Moors v Rochdale
at 08:11 30 Apr 2025
We dominated the game and should have lead going into half time if not for some better finishing. In games gone by it’s the sort of situation you would expect us to concede a late goal out of nowhere and lose it 1-0. But we now look much more solid and it certainly never felt like Solihull were going to trouble us. The fact we got the goal and secured the points gives me hope we can grind out more results in the weeks ahead. In fact, not being able to do that when it mattered has been one of my big criticisms of McNulty. Finishing off the season in 4th place has to be seen as a successful season, no matter what happens in the play offs and despite my protestations in the past Jim has earned the right to lead us into next season. I still think we won’t have enough to get past York, but I’m optimistic we have something to really build on for a proper promotion push next season. Unless Jim proves me wrong once again…. |
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Reply | Refwatch - Altrincham v Rochdale
at 17:40 18 Apr 2025
Was fully expecting that to be more points dropped so very encouraging that we managed to pull something out of the bag to get a deserved 3 points. One more win from our last four should secure a play off place. With Jay Bird supposedly returning soon could we go on a bit of a run here?? I’d love McNulty to prove me and the other doubters wrong. |
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Reply | Joe Thompson
at 13:16 18 Apr 2025
There are few players in the history of Rochdale who we can say scored a goal which changed the clubs entire trajectory. Chris O’Grady with the promotion goal against Northampton is one. Joey Thompson and the goal that kept us up against Charlton is another. For that goal alone he would have been a Dale legend. But to do have done it having missed most of the season recovering from a second cancer diagnosis. To do it being a local lad, one of our own - surely puts his goal above all others. His fight, both on and off the pitch, was inspirational. I’m absolutely gutted by today’s news and I trust that in time the club will come up with a fitting tribute to a true Rochdale legend, taken far too young. |
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Reply | Refwatch - Sutton United v Rochdale
at 14:43 9 Apr 2025
He doesn’t like pressure. Will do anything to avoid putting pressure on the players which is reflected in how readily he’ll defend poor performances. Can’t cope with it when it’s applied to himself as evidenced by us capitulating in every game that means something. |
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Reply | Refwatch - Sutton United v Rochdale
at 14:27 9 Apr 2025
This would be my concern, that one of the teams below us go on a bit of a run and take our place in the top 7. It feels like we are only still in the play off places because of how poor everyone else is. There have been so many teams dropping points that have meant we’ve managed to cling on despite a poor run of results. But that’s unlikely to last for the rest of the season and usually someone makes a late surge.
In theory - we could still get promoted this season. It wouldn’t take much for us to get in the play offs ourselves and then win a few more games. But does anyone at all think this is going to happen? I’ve never heard McNulty once talk about it. Does he mention in his interviews that we’re on course to get promoted? That that’s the aim? Thats where this club should be? Or do we just get references to budgets and injuries and pitches.
Coming into the business end of the season and we have zero momentum. I don’t see how anyone is pinning the blame anywhere except on McNulty. |
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Reply | Refwatch - Sutton United v Rochdale
at 08:39 9 Apr 2025
I don’t think this is at all about recruitment. The problem is McNulty himself. From when he first took over as caretaker you could hear him making excuses for the players in the post match interviews. There was no anger at the position the club were in and no suggestion that they were prepared to fight like hell to give themselves the chance to survive. He, McNulty, lacks the grit, character and determination required to fight our way out of this league. It is passed on to his players. You see it every time they are too scared to take a player on or try something different but instead make the easy boring predictable SAFE decision to pass the ball sideways/backwards five yards. You see it in every game we fail to go for the kill and concede late on. How many points dropped because of the lack of grit? How many opportunities wasted because we don’t have it in us to fight? He constantly wilts under pressure and has a million excuses at the ready after another pitiful display rather than taking some accountability. Maybe he is best suited, like BBM, to youth team coaching where the players are only every encouraged and they can be complimented and reassured after every game on their lovely passing and keeping of possession. But it’s not suited to getting us back into the football league regardless of which players get recruited. After two years of watching him in this job the verdict is in. He needs to go. |
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Reply | FA Trophy semi
at 19:45 5 Apr 2025
Exactly this. We’ll be out after the first game as we put in another gutless performance when the pressure is on. I can’t see any other outcome meaning McNulty has to go at the end of the season. If you can’t get the team to turn up for the games that matter we can’t ever hope to gain promotion. |
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Reply | FA Trophy semi
at 19:40 5 Apr 2025
This whole thread is you defending the indefensible. |
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Reply | FA Trophy semi
at 17:51 5 Apr 2025
I think this gets to the heart of it. It’s not just losing an important game - it’s that it comes on the back of several years of disappointments and having the club let the fans down. No-one has any goodwill left in the bank. It’s not too much to have asked we could beat a part time team from the division below in order to see us play at Wembley. The manner in which it happened was utterly predictable. This is McNulty all over - no fire, no grit or determination. Folds when pressure is applied. Not sure how anyone can be defending him after that. |
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Reply | TVOS Preview - Rochdale v York City
at 20:07 26 Mar 2025
Amazes me how people seem to forget who was the manager of Rochdale AFC at the point we got relegated out of the football league.
Now granted, the damage had pretty much been done by the time JM took over but did anyone witness any fire, grit or determination in those final performances of that season? You could see from every team selection and interview that JM - this great loyal servant of the club - had already accepted our fate and wasn’t putting up any fight. That’s why I’ve always been against his permanent appointment. I had accepted us going down, what I couldn’t accept is going down so pathetically and JM’s role in that won’t be forgotten by me.
If by some miracle we get promoted this season then fair enough, I’ll eat my words and JM will have every right to crow at the doubters.
But there seems almost no likelihood whatsoever of that happening because here we are - two years on - with JM’s teams still showing the same absence of fire, grit and determination. The exact qualities you need to win trophies, to win crucial play off games. To, you know, GET PROMOTED.
Why anyone thinks this man should be entrusted with 3 years to carry on is verging on the definition of madness - we’ll be playing exactly the same in the future as we do now yet some of you will be expecting a different outcome. It’s time for a change. |
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Reply | Refwatch - Maidenhead United v Rochdale
at 12:22 24 Mar 2025
edit - was supposed to be replying to samueloneils post
I think this gets to the heart of the issue - we watch the games week in week out and (apart from I would say, this recent spell of wins) the football under JM has been dire.
We find ourselves in non league in perhaps the worst position in the club's history and actually I think the fans have been remarkably restrained. But no-one is happy with this and actually there is an underlying anger at where we are that can jump to the surface at any point.
In order to keep that at bay - the key is ARE THERE GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM?. I started to have some with the win over Alty in the cup and the series of wins - Bird being for me the main catalyst of the change in how we played. But with Bird gone and the recent results of 1 point from 2 games against relegation zone opposition - the optimism has gone again. Getting us into the play-offs doesn't feel like an achievement if there is zero expectation we can go on to win it. I would have no faith in Jim's team, minus Bird and playing as they have done for the majority of the season, to grind out some results and get us back into L2. I don't know how anyone who has watched his teams over the past two seasons can think they have the fire and grit and determination needed to show up and perform when it counts. In fact - quite the opposite is usually true.
So despite the FA Trophy and despite the league position I am still not convinced JM can do what's needed to get us promoted and I don't want to see him in charge for an entire 3 year plan as I think his time in charge has shown we will end that 3 years exactly where we started. [Post edited 24 Mar 12:24]
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