New signing Tommy McDermott says he's really up for the challenges ahead after signing on loan earlier today.
Tommy McDermott signed on loan until January earlier today, joining from League One side Port Vale.
The midfielder is happy to have joined the club.
"I’m very happy to have the opportunity to come here. Rochdale seem to play the way that suits me, they’re a good well-respected outfit," he commented.
"It’s a good club, I’ve played against Rochdale before. I know the way they play now and that’s the way that I want to play football.
"I want to get the ball down and play, work off people and work hard.
"Everyone’s made me feel really welcome, they all seem like top guys.
"In the squad, there are a lot of technical players, there are players like myself, who want to get stuck in and who are up for it. I think that I can fit in well with the lads.
"I’m a ball-playing midfielder, I like to score goals and I’m attacking-minded."
McDermott completed a two-year scholarship before signing his first professional contract with the Valiants, he feels like he's learned a lot on the field and off the field.
"I’ve learnt a lot since I’ve been at Port Vale. I started off as a first-year scholar.
"I had a lot of coaches who taught the hard way sort of speak, they taught me a lot about respect as well as telling us how to be off the pitch to then be able to become a footballer, not just on the pitch stuff.
"And then you learn as you come into the first-team environment. You’ve got to be good at everything, but you’ve got to have that one thing, that one quality that separates you from everyone else."
In his first year as a scholar, the 18-year-old picked up the Youth Team's Player of the Year award.
When talking about winning the award he said: "It was a proud moment for me.
"My first year at Port Vale I just wanted to show everyone what I could do, it was a great honour to be given the award, it was not something that I was focusing on, it was just something that came along from my hard work across the season and I’m glad I got it."
Dale face a busy August schedule with plenty of games set to be played. McDermott has said that he's really up for the challenges ahead.
"I’m really up for it, I just love playing football," said the midfielder.
"It’s a good standard, it’s a good league for me to showcase what I can do. It's going to be a competitive league, it’s not going to be an easy ride.
"I’m just glad that I can come here and play football."
