Dooley handed chance at Dale
ROCHDALE AFC’s summer recruitment drive continued this week with the signing of Northern Irish midfielder Stephen Dooley.
The 26-year-old has put pen to paper on a twoyear deal at the Crown Oil Arena.
He joins from NIFL Premiership side Coleraine, with whom he won the Irish Cup earlier this month.
Dooley began his career with The Bannsiders, appearing in the 2008 Irish Cup Final at the age of just 16.
He moved south of the Irish border to Derry City in 2014, before joining Cork City for a successful two-year spell in 2016, winning the FAI League and Cup double last year alongside current Dale defender Ryan Delaney.
He rejoined Coleraine on a six-month deal in January, and is now looking forward to his first spell in English football.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to play over in the English system, and Rochdale looks like a brilliant club, so I’m delighted to finally get the deal done.”
The deal is subject to EFL and International clearance and is a continuation of manager Keith Hill’s bid to get the balance right between attacking creativity and defensive solidity.
“As a manager you try to mathematically get the right balance, but we haven’t,” said Hill of the 2017/18 season.
“We attacked but we missed opportunities and made mistakes, we narrowly points when we’d been don’t want to. I feel there and Aaron Morley it’s about making sure we drew games or were winning games. has been a massive building who have to be given plan and learn the lessons beaten in games where we “So it is narrow margins process over the last opportunities next season. and I believe the players took the lead. and you cannot overreact. four years and we’re still They have big parts to and myself have learned
“We’d have been fourth building. play in pre-season. lessons from the season if we’d picked up the “We can’t rebuild and I “We’ve got Dan Adshead “As far as I’m concerned just gone.”
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