The Spotland side welcomed the Football League’s lowest ever crowd for a Tuesday afternoon fixture, and won just two matches all season
The clichés are well-worn, about light at the end of the tunnel, or a corner that will soon be turned. During the 1973-74 season, there was none of that for Rochdale. In the history of the Football League, no club has ever won fewer matches in a 46-game campaign.
Twelve years earlier, the Spotland side had achieved the remarkable – despite finishing 12th in the Fourth Division in 1961-62, they reached the League Cup final in what was the second edition of the competition. Tony Collins became the first BAME boss to manage a team in an English final, though second-tier Norwich won the opening leg 3-0 in Greater Manchester, then confirmed their maiden major trophy triumph thanks to a 1-0 victory at Carrow Road.
In 1969, Dale were promoted to the Third Division, rising to ninth a season later. They were a respectable 13th in 1972-73, before things started to unravel. The next season, the club came rock bottom of the third tier, conceding 94 goals and winning just twice. By the time they’d concluded the campaign with a 22-match winless streak, they were 21 points adrift of safety in an era when victory was still worth only two points.
Around the same time, the nation was in meltdown. The Arab-Israeli War had sent energy prices soaring, causing a near economic collapse. As inflation took hold, a three-day working week was introduced. Mine workers and others went on strike. Edward Heath, the prime minister, declared a state of emergency. Bombs were being detonated across England by the IRA and power cuts were frequent – hence midweek afternoon kick-offs to avoid using floodlights.
Rochdale lost at home to Cambridge on a Tuesday afternoon in early February, watched by the lowest post-war attendance for a Football League fixture – approximately 450 (the club were too embarrassed to release a genuine figure).
The football club was a mirror image of its town – tired, dark, clinging to life. Rochdale’s cotton industry was in shutdown. Thousands working at TBA (Turner Brothers Asbestos) were becoming incre
