Training Camp 2008 Tuesday 15^th July

Today was match day but there was no let up for the players in terms of training. The day started at 7.45pm in the treatment room with Guy and Jimmy tending to the blisters etc.

Joe Thompson reported to the physio with his ligament problem and was ruled out of training as Adam Rundle who was suffering from shin splints. The good news was that Nathan D'Laryea was fit and able to train.

Breakfast was at the usual time of 8.15am and the lads were encouraged to take on the fuel that they needed to get them through what was going to be a long day.

Training commenced and 9.30am with young Raphale Evans elevated to the leader of the pack for the warm up laps and stretch routines.

After the warm ups the lads were in to one half of the pitch where there was a ball scattered all over the pitch for each of them, Flicker then took them through a session of walk, jog and sprint on his commands.

Next up as a money circle with both the Gaffer and Flicker involved, we were back to two men in the middle but the luck didn't change for Raph.

The next part of the session was again conducted in one half of the pitch but full width. Two teams of 10 but without goalkeepers and with the Gaffer playing for reds and Flicker playing for blues.

The whole purpose of this exercise was all about retaining possession and each team had to make at least 6 passes before they could score. Paul Conway refereed the game and his main two functions were to count the passes and serve the ball back when it went out of play. Paul received a large amount of criticism from blues as they thought he was biased in serving too many balls to reds but Paul pleads his impartiality.

This session was very fast and as I said all about possession. At one point the Gaffer nutmegged Flicker and for a brief moment the Gaffer had a wide smile, unfortunately for him in embarrassing his good buddy the Gaffers team lost possession and Flicker was quick to point out that the Gaffer had lost possession in trying to be clever (that was the edited version).

The possession session was run in mini games but all the games were fast, furious and as you can imagine with the Gaffer and Flicker out there they were very competitive.

To finish the session on the training pitch Paul Conway had a specific session, which was designed to monitor all the players through their polar belts. This was again the walk, jog, sprint session with the ball and Paul calling out the instructions. Paul will later be downloading the information and the players will be expected to have spent at least 60% of these monitoring sessions in the red zone.

With this part of the session over it was back up the dreaded hill for some active recovery and another Guy Proctor circuit session in the gym, which is all about conditioning. Finally to finish off the morning session it was those iced baths.

The morning session finished around midday and the players were given until 2.30pm to recover before reporting to the dining room for their pre-match meal. The rest of the afternoon after that was also recovery time before reporting at 5.45pm for the match against Marbella. 

After rest and relaxation it was off to the training pitch to prepare for our game against Marbella, our opponents used the hotel facilities to get changed while our lads arrived ready dressed from their rooms.

Again a small band of Dale fans had turned up to see the lads and they managed to get those much sought after photographs.

The conditions were quite cloudy today and there was a strong breeze accompanying the clouds, it was a great toss for Gary Jones to win knowing he was only playing the first half, he had no hesitation in turning the teams round so we had the wind at our backs in the first half.

The starting line up was Sam Russell, Simon Ramsden, Nathan Stanton, Raphale Evans, Tom Kennedy, Ciaran Toner, gary Jones, Clark Keltie, Kallum Higginbotham, Chris Dagnall and Adam Le Fondre.

Clark Keltie, adam Le fonder and Chris Dagnall all had half chances to open the scoring in the opening quarter of an hour but it wasn't until the 20^th minute that Dale took a very deserved lead, Clark Keltie found space down the right and unselfishly crossed to Daggers who finished from 10 yards.

The scores were level just before the half hour when the Dale defence allowed a ball to bounce in the box and a sharp Marbella striker hit a first time shot that gave Sam Russell no chance.

Tom Kennedy of all people had the next chance to score for Dale, having gone on a run he found himself central in space and Clark Keltie's neat through ball gave him the chance but unfortunately it went wide of the post.

Clark Keltie was involved in most of what we were doing and he scored an early contender for goal of the season, unfortunately its not on tape. Dale won a corner on the right, the ball evaded most and Kelts was beyond the far post and about 12 yards out with a bit of an angle but his sweet left footed volley screamed in to the top left angle of the goal.

Half time 2-1.

The much changed line up for the second half was Sam Russell, Siomon Ramsden, Scott Wiseman, Nathan D'Laryea, Tom Kennedy, Kallum Higginbotham, Simon Heslop, Kyle Lambert, Ben Muirhead, Will Buckley and Jon Shaw. If you are wondering where Rory the wall McArdle is, don't panic, he was there for a short while but was left out due to a dicky tummy.

Jon Shaw made an immediate impact on the game and in the first minute of the half only the finger tips of the keeper managed to keep his clever little chip out.

Five minutes in to the second half Dale increased their lead when a good move down the right had side was finally switched to the left hand side where Ben Muirhead drifted in to side foot home past the keeper.

Jon Shaw got his first goal in a Dale shirt, again all the hard work had been done down the right hand side and Shaw had the easiest of headers at the far post.

Midway through the half Ben Muirhead reacted to a poor challenge, which resulted in both players being shown a yellow card.

On 70 minutes Dale pressured the Marbella defence in their own box and Kallum Higginbotham intercepted well and left himself the easiest of chances to beat the keeper and make the score 5-1.

The final goal of the game came in the 75^th minute and will Buckley provided a neat cross from the right for Jon Shaw to sneak in front of his defender and finish from close range.

The referee played forty two minutes in the first half and just short of 40 minutes in the second half, I know there's a time difference over here compared to back home but that seemed a little strange to everyone.

It was a good exercise against an enthusiastic Marbella side that managed to stay close to us for "42.5" minutes. All in all a good workout for the lads.

Tomorrow at 10am we depart from the hotel for our flight back to Manchester. In my opinion this has been a very worthwhile week for both the players and the staff. The players have worked very hard in the training sessions and I have no doubt that they have improved both their skills and their fitness. We have had two good games against very different types of teams, which was very interesting. There has been good banter between everyone and the new players have had a great opportunity to gel with the rest of the squad. We all witnessed the value of this type of training camp last year and we all hope to see the same again during the coming season.