THEN
AND NOW
Former Dale player Keith Hicks, usually a quiet retiring sort of chap (actually, we made that last bit up!) made his debut for the club’s matchday hospitality package, entertaining diners about his time as a player for Dale back in the 1980s. He then followed on about the setting up of the extremely successful Rochdale AFC Community Trust (formerly Football in the Community) which he was responsible for. Keith then joined Dave Dockerty on the pitch at halftime picking out the winning numbers for the Club’s 50/50 draw.
During the Q&A session with Martin Culshaw he spoke about his short time as a player, from making his league debut against Aldershot and his last ever professional match against Crewe Alexandra, making only 32 appearances, scoring a solitary goal before a serious pelvic injury brought his retirement from professional football.
Keith went on to say that the biggest highlight for him was playing in the FA Cup 3rd round against Manchester United at Old Trafford marking Mark Hughes. Ron Atkinson, United’s Manager at the time went on to replace Hughes with Jesper Olsen. Hughes moved at the end of the season to Barcelona for 1M, was it to better himself? or was it the fear of possibly playing against Keith again in the future?
Another notable memory (mentioned above) was scoring a goal (The Goal) in the fog at Mansfield Town, witnessed by hardly anyone. We can’t back you up Keith on that, we did not see anything either.
Reflecting on his time following retirement from professional football Keith covered the 33 subsequent years where he was involved with Football in the Community, a PFA initiative that morphed into the Community Trust and outlined the many programmes which benefited the wide and diverse community here in Rochdale,
Some of the highlights are the early development of Jamie Allen, Ethan Brierley, Joe Thompson, and Scott Warner on school programmes plus Fabio Tavares on a Premier League Kicks plus Keira Walsh’s early start into football was after soccer schools and after-school sessions run at Healey with Siobhan McElhinney then the Trust assistant manager
All in all, a connection with Rochdale AFC of over thirty nine years, which he described as fully enjoyable and extremely satisfying.
Another ex player scheduled to visit the Crown Oil Arena as part of the Formers Player’s Associations involvement in hospitality activities is Steve Taylor who’s own recollections of that United game are well worth listening to!
Steve will be the FPA guest at Saturday’s match against Forest Green Rovers.
Future guests from the Former Players association who are due to visit will be announced shortly on the Dale Trust Website
Keith writes regularly for the Dale trust newsletter where he shares news and views from the former player scene and features interviews with many notable names from the past, all articles are published on the Trust web site under the umbrella heading of FPA, you can find that HERE.
To find out more on the FPA and the impact they have had on the journey of Rochdale AFC then their own website is the place (HERE) You can also follow Keith’s work on Facebook (HERE)
Keith Hicks is a member of the Dale Trust board.
He can be contacted by email at Keith.hicks5@outlook.com
or via the Trust at info@daletrust.co.uk.