Rochdale v Crewe Alexandra re-arranged for tonight
It will be third time lucky for Rochdale's under 18s tonight as they prepare to face Crewe Alexandra in the third round of the FA Youth Cup.
The match has already been postponed twice due to the weather, including on Monday due to a water-logged pitch, however the game is set to go ahead this evening (Tuesday 18th December) with a 7pm kick-off.
Youth Team Manager Chris Beech spoke to rochdaleafc.co.uk ahead of the re-arranged fixture: “Postponing last night’s game was the right decision,” said Beech. “There was a lot of standing water on the pitch and both myself and my counterpart at Crewe agreed that it wasn’t safe for the players or conducive to good football.
“Of course there was a deflated type feeling as all the players were raring to go, but both sets of players are in exactly the same position. We trained on Sunday in preparation for last night’s game so we are ready. I told the players last night before they went home to get rid of a little bit of energy and they probably would have struggled to sleep, but we’ll aim to do it all again tonight and hopefully we’ll get another good performance out the guys.”
Tonight’s fixture means Dale now have two games in as many days with Hartlepool United the opponents in the Youth Alliance Cup this Thursday. Beech says having games so close together isn’t an issue: “They’re young boys and they train very hard. We want to get these two games in before Christmas because we have a good opportunity of being in two cup competitions going into the New Year. We’ve got to earn that right but that’s what we are looking to do.”