Andy Haworth is “looking forward to getting out there and playing again” after penning a deal which will see him at Rochdale until the end of the season.
The 24-year-old, who worked under Manager Keith Hill while on loan at Dale during the 2009/10 season, has been free agent since leaving Scottish side Falkirk in November, and he is raring to get started.
“My experiences of working under Keith first time round were good,” said Haworth. “He sets his team out well, they’re hard to beat, they play good football, and I’m really looking forward to the task ahead.
“It has been difficult for me [in recent months] but I’ve been keeping myself fit by working on my own and training with other teams to keep that level of fitness up. It has been a tough couple of months, but hopefully it will all be worth it now.”
Regular football has been limited for Haworth over the past twelve months and he says securing first team football is his aim.
“If you ask any player they’ll tell you that the more games they get, the more confident they get and it shows on the pitch, and I’m the same. I want to help the team progress, as well as getting some game time and with that improving my fitness. I’m just looking forward to getting out there and playing again.”
It’s a return to Spotland for Haworth who spent six months at Spotland from Blackburn Rovers during Dale’s promotion season, and he says he has fond memories of his previous spell at the club.
“I came to the club in the January of that season and all the lads had a great team spirit. They were playing great football and that’s why they were top of the table. Keith’s a great motivator, he gets the best out of his players and that’s one of the reasons I came back. The Manager wants to go places and so do the lads, so hopefully that ambition pays off and we can start getting results and push back up the table.”
Manager Keith Hill commented: “Andy offers me natural width and he’s a jack-in-the-box. He’s very unpredictable, he’s got pace with the ball and he’ll cause the opposition a lot of problems - that’s one of the areas we were looking to improve with our natural width.”
*Images courtesy of The Falkirk Herald Newspaper.