131 Neil Edmonds

I  think  the  Scunthorpe  defender  centre  shot  might  be  Tony  Brown

Position : Forward

Played : 1988-89 to 1989-90

Appearances : 47

Goals : 8


Neil was initially signed on loan from Oldham as cover for Chris Beaumont’s injury. He had made five appearances for their first team in defence but in a recent reserve game had been played upfront and run amok with four goals so he came to us as a striker.



He did well enough to get taken on although understandably he was still learning the trade upfront. He’s the only Dale player I’ve ever seen take instruction on his position for a corner from a loudmouthed fan in the Sandy Lane. He was sent off at Doncaster in February 1989 (the first away game I drove to - and crashed on the way back) for celebrating our equaliser with the words “That’s how to score you f**king cheats” (in reference to their earlier penalty which Dave Frain had been sent off for contesting). Neil was kept on for the following season but Terry Dolan didn’t use him much. His last contribution to our fortunes was a pass on to Kevin Stonehouse in the move that led to the latter’s winning goal against Marine at Anfield in the FA Cup First Round in November 1989.



When released Neil moved on to Chorley and then Stalybridge Celtic where he settled at right back for a number of seasons. Which leads to the interesting observation (well I thought so) that four out of the five main strikers we used in 1988-89 (the exception being the returning Steve Taylor) ended up playing in a different position for their subsequent clubs.

130 Paul Wood

No picture of Paul

Position : Winger

Played : 1988-89 (on loan from Sheffield United)

Appearances : 5

Goals : 0


Paul was a winger taken on loan from Sheffield United for whom he made just one League appearance. He made little impact in his time at Spotland and we weren’t interested in extending the loan. He moved on to Hyde United but made just one substitute appearance after which I lose track of him. Shortly after he left Sheffield United they signed another Paul Wood from Brighton but the two should not be confused.

129 Chris Beaumont

Position : Forward

Played : 1988-89

Appearances : 34

Goals : 7

Chris was another latecomer to the professional game, an office worker who’d caught Danny Bergara’s eye while playing for Denaby United alongside his son Simon. Chris got injured early on so his reappearance late into the autumn gave the team a shot in the arm. Chris was a bit short of pace but had great skill and control and was our best player after Mark Smith had moved on.



Unfortunately Bergara returned to poach him in the summer so we only enjoyed half a season of his talents. At Stockport he settled into a more midfield role and was an integral part of the side that started climbing the divisions. He made 258 appearances for Stockport scoring 39 goals before moving on to Chesterfield in 1996 at the age of 30. He played in the FA Cup Semi-Final against Middlesbrough in 1997 and racked up another 158 appearances (6 goals) before his release in 2001. He returned to non-league football with Ossett Town and now runs a post office.

128 Mark Smith

Position : Forward

Played : 1988-89

Appearances : 27

Goals : 7

Mark was signed from Kettering. He had started out with Sheffield United but never made the first team and dropped into non-league with Worksop and Gainsborough. In 1985-6 he got another chance with Scunthorpe but only played one game for them before moving on to Kettering. He was 26 when we signed him.



Mark was played upfront but was really a winger so his style was rather unorthodox. Nevertheless he was quite effective, being able to shield the ball and play others in as well as grabbing some goals himself. His best game was away at Grimsby when he scored two of the goals in a 3-1 win. After we played them in the First Round of the FA Cup , Huddersfield came calling and we sold him for £35,000. Mark achieved the rare feat of playing 47 League games that season.



Huddersfield restored him to the wing and he played 96 games for them scoring 11 goals. In 1991 he was sold to Grimsby scoring 4 in 77 games for them. He then returned to Scunthorpe for two years scoring 8 in 62 games before dropping back to non-league with Boston. He played for a number of sides in the South Yorkshire area before retiring and had spells managing Buxton and Maltby Main.

127 David Frain

Position : Midfield

Played : 1988-89

Appearances : 42

Goals : 12

David was signed on a free transfer from Sheffield United. He was a late starter in the professional game afer signing for the Blades from a youth club side at 23. He had made 44 appearances scoring 5 goals.

With all due respect to Gary Jones David was the best midfield player I've seen at Spotland. He was intelligent, combative and prolific, player of the season by miles. At the end of the season he was offered the best contract ever at Spotland according to the Chairman but he decided to join Danny Bergara's squad at Stockport instead. I can't remember what fee was set by the tribunal but it wasn't enough.

David was part of the Stockport team that won the Fourth Division title in 1991 and stayed with them until 1995 when he went to Mansfield on loan before his release. Strangely enough it took him his entire Stockport career (187 appearances) to equal the goal tally he achieved in one season at Dale. He went into non-league with Stalybridge Celtic and later played for Worksop Town and Hallam FC

126 Dave Sutton

Position : Centre half

Played : 1988-89

Appearances : 28

Goals : 2


And so we come to the most colourful character associated with Dale in my time watching them. Dave was signed on a free from Bolton Wanderers having just helped them squeeze back into the Third Division through the play-offs (in my Stockport-supporting friend’s view they were the worst team ever to go up). Although born in Lancashire he began his career with Plymouth. After 61 appearances plus 9 on loan at Reading in 1977-78 he was signed by Huddersfield and was a vital part of the side that rose from the Fourth to Second Division in the early 80s. Manager Mick Buxton regarded him as one of his best-ever signings as a centre half willing to put his body on the line. In 1985 he signed for Bolton suffering relegation (and a monster perm) with them in 1986-7.



Dave gave us an early taste of what was to come by ludicrously over-celebrating his penalty in a Manx Cup shoot-out at Burnden Park but in the first few games of the season he was dreadful , knocking us out of the League Cup against Burnley singlehandedly with some schoolboy errors. Then we had an away game at Hartlepool which we won 1-0 and he was immense. After that he was by some distance our best defender and a key reason why we stayed out of the bottom four. However, early in the new year he was advised by doctors to give up playing or risk serious damage to his back . Apparently he was willing to see out the season but Danny Bergara persuaded him to retire and arranged for him to become club physio. He was caretaker for three games after Bergara left for Stockport , all of which we lost then returned to the physio role under Terry Dolan.



When Dolan left for Hull in 1990-91 he invited Dave to join him but Dave stayed put and became caretaker-manager. Despite Dale treading water for the rest of that season he was given the permanent job and allowed to spend the bulk of the money raised by the sale of Keith Welch on players like Andy Flounders. Dale just missed out on the playoffs in 1991-2 (having benefitted from the mid-season demise of Aldershot). The following season we fell back a bit after a bad injury to Andy Milner and finished 12th. In 1993-4 he further strengthened the squad with Mark Stuart and Martin Hodge in the summer and a good finish almost got us in the playoffs again. Those are the bare facts but we all remember the outrageous statements and predictions , the winding up of opposing managers and most of all the “spastic on the plastic” antics at half time at Deepdale in 1993 when he preferred orchestrating the crowd to giving a half time team talk.



However Sooty was already sowing the seeds of his own downfall. A persistent weakness throughout his reign was his willingness to relieve his friend Bergara of any troublemakers at Stockport and this culminated in the disastrous and expensive signing of Paul Williams. This was compounded by other poor signings - Darren Ryan, Chris Clarke, Darren Oliver – and meant a weak start to the 1994-5 season. Things looked even bleaker when Alan Reeves left for Wimbledon and the knives came out for Sooty from those he’d managed to offend with his big mouth. His last, fatal, mistake was the loan signing of goalkeeper Matt Dickins whose incompetence led to a run of heavy defeats in October 1994. Sooty was shown the door giving it some crap about how Bill Shankly had once been sacked.



Although he applied for a vacancy at Northampton he eventually turned up at then-ambitious Chorley but despite some relatively heavy spending he achieved very little there and called it a day after a couple of years to run his father’s garden centre on the road between Preston and Southport where he remains to this day.

125 Simon Copeland

Position : Right back (also played at centre half )

Played : 1988-89

Appearances: 28

Goals : 0

Simon was one of Danny Bergara's close season signings from Sheffield United reserves. He had never played in the League before and possibly that's the way it should have stayed. Simon was a tall lad with a rigid stance and a fierce shot which rattled the crossbar from 35 yards in a Manx Cup game at Bolton. Unfortunately he had no positional sense at all and often went missing when needed. He was also a regular in the referee's notebook for mistimed tackles. Terry Dolan got rid of him at the first opportunity.

He moved on to Gainsborough Trinity and later played for Alfreton Town.