Why Jordan will stay MJ at Rochdale
MJ Williams is expecting to see a few familiar faces when Rochdale kick off the League One campaign at Tranmere Rovers today.
The Liverpudlian lives a stone’s throw from Prenton Park and family and friends will be among a packed house to cheer him on - though they may left wondering why Williams is known as MJ rather than Jordan.
The other Jordan Williams departed Dale in the summer but MJ will remain MJ in and around the club rather than revert to his Christian name.
“We had this discussion in preseason, but all of the lads just can’t get out of calling me MJ so I think I’ll have to stick with that, everyone at the club knows me as that now!”
“Tranmere’s not too far from me, it’s only round the corner!
“A few of my mates will be going and my mum will be there – she goes to every game. So I’ll have a few there, hopefully I’ll have a few tickets spare for those who have been asking for them. It will be good because some people can’t come to watch as much as they would like to, but being round the corner hopefully they will be able to make it.
“I can’t wait for it and they will probably sell the stadium out. They have a good team and even though they have lost one of their strikers, James Norwood, who scored most of their goals last year, I’m sure they have a replacement for him and it will be a tough game.
“Their fans are going to be very lively and we have just got to go there with our gameplan and hopefully implement everything we have worked on in preseason and get the win.”
Like the majority of the squad, Williams is excited at the prospect of putting the hard work of pre-season to the test with the start of the fixture programme.
“I can’t wait to get going now, I’ve worked hard to get to this point and I think all the lads are ready to go and I most certainly am,” he said.
“Everyone dreads the thought of preseason but this has been a good one.
“We have got a lot of fitness put into us and this is probably the fittest I have ever felt off the back of this pre-season, so I just can’t wait now to take that into the season and hopefully have a good campaign.
“All the sessions have been brilliant. Kevin Gibbons took over the running and it has been tough. When we were out in Portugal we played 45 minutes each and then went straight out onto the track and ran – that was mentally tough, with the heat as well.
“But it’s all got us into the best shape we can be in and on top of that the football sessions have been brilliant as well. Everyone has enjoyed it and you can tell by the way al the lads have pulled together.
“I enjoyed Tenerife last summer but I preferred the Portugal camp – it was a very good set up and was something a bit different for lads like Hendo and Calvin, who had been to Tenerife a few years running. I think they enjoyed a bit of a change.
“We’re a tight group and we all have each other’s backs. I think towards the back end of last season it showed in our performances. I know we have lost a few loan players since then, but it is more or less the same squad as last year and hopefully we can kick on and take that form into this season.”