Rochdale make the trip to Glanford Park on New Year’s Day for a top of the table clash against Scunthorpe United.
The Iron are currently joint top of Sky Bet League Two (in second place on goal difference), just a point better off than Dale who moved into fourth following Sunday’s win over Bristol Rovers.
Manager Keith Hill is expecting a difficult encounter: “Scunthorpe are a good side and always have been a good side. I feel as though the sacking of Brian Laws was maybe a knee jerk reaction to getting beat by Grimsby in the Cup, but they’ve always had the capability with the squad of players that they’ve got. For me it’s a League One squad and it’s going to be a very difficult task.
“I believe that Scunthorpe can be one of the teams who rival the likes of Chesterfield because of the experience that they’ve got in their squad, their knowledge and their knowhow. In Russ (Wilcox) they’ve got a good Manager - he knows the players inside out and he’s trying to recruit players who have previously played for Scunthorpe. With that in mind it’s going to be a difficult task, but I feel as though we’re up for it. We’ve obviously also got to look at the recovery time between Sunday's match, Wednesday's match and the Leeds game, which is a massive game for the Football Club as well.
Hill continued: “We’re on countdown now - we count up to 23 games then it’s counting down. The season really does evaporate very quickly and the next 23 games are going to go so quickly.
“We’re in good shape in the league and have an FA Cup fixture to look forward. If you were to throw this at me at the beginning of the season then I’d be very, very happy.”