CAPTURING LIFE ON THE BRINK AT DALE

The Overcoat Men, by Mark Hodkinson, published by Pitch Publishing, Price: £12.99

AS WE’VE already seen this season, football clubs in the lower leagues often live on the brink.

Some, like Bury, slide over the edge of the cliff. Others, like Bolton, haul themselves back in the nick of time.

In The Overcoat Men, author Mark Hodkinson takes us back in time to a perilous stage in Rochdale’s history.

In the late 70s and early 80s, Dale were struggling on and off the pitch. The old board of directors appeared to have run out of puff and a new broom swept in – only to realise that running a football club is in many ways a thankless task.

Yes, there may be prestige in being a chairman or director of a Football League club, but when results are bad and you have to continually stump up money to pay the bills, that initial enthusiasm can soon wane.

The subtitle of the book is ‘How Two Unsung Heroes Staved off the Bulldozers and Saved their Football Club from Oblivion’.

Suffice to say, there are plenty of twists and turns with a colourful bunch of characters. Hodkinson has gone to great lengths to get the full story, conducting more than 50 interviews with those involved at the time.

from the battle to keep the club alive, the book shines a light on what lower league football was like 40-odd years ago.

True, Rochdale were one of the poorer relations, but they were hardly one of a kind.

It brings us back to the days before automatic promotion and relegation from the Football League.

Having become re-election experts,

Rochdale knew how to snare votes to ensure they stayed in the top 92.

To be honest, It was pretty much a closed shop as the League clubs voted for their counterparts, though Dale had an almighty battle with ambitious Altrincham one year, surviving by the skin of their teeth.

There are some fascinating tales about manager Bob Stokoe. Many of us will only remember him from his Sunderland days and that FA Cup final win against Leeds, but he had two spells in the hot seat at Rochdale. Then there’s Mark Hilditch, a 17-year-old originally playing for expenses. He scored the winner on his debut against Reading after doing his day job at an engiAside neering plant. “When Hilditch arrived at work the next day he received a round of applause from colleagues in the milling section and the machine room,” writes Hodkinson. “He set about his work but was soon tapped on the shoulder. The foreman gave him a dressing-down for clocking in 15 minutes late.”

Football and the way it worked was different back then, but Hodkinson’s well-written tale still has resonance today.

It will obviously have special appeal for Rochdale fans, but there’s plenty to chew on for the neutral, too.

Rating out of 10: 8