Saturday’s fixture against Grimsby Town will be the 50th time that the clubs have faced off with each other.
The head-to-head record is in favour of The Mariners, who have 22 wins. Dale have won 19 and there have been eight draws.
Grimsby Town was Dale’s second home Sky Bet League Two game of the season. Luke Waterfall scored an injury-time winner for Grimsby who headed home from a corner to win the game. Dale created numerous opportunities but failed to score.
Prior to that, Dale were unbeaten against Grimsby in their last 10 meetings, winning eight. Dale also earned six clean sheets in those games.
We’ve taken a look at a couple of our trips to Blundell Park, where we're unbeaten in the last five trips (four wins and one draw, as well as four clean sheets).
Tuesday 14th August 2018 – Grimsby Town 0-2 Dale
Ollie Rathbone was at the double as Dale progressed through to Round Two of the Carabao Cup.
Dale dominated the opening exchanges, penning the hosts into their half, with Andy Cannon hitting wide of the target on 21 minutes.
Ian Henderson was denied by the legs of James McKeown at the near post soon after the half-hour mark, but before the half concluded, Rochdale went ahead.
Rathbone beat the offside trap to latch onto the end of a Harrison McGahey ball over the top, and after running in on goal, he finished across McKeown and into the bottom-left corner of the net.
Three chances would fall to Dale within the first five minutes of the second half. Cannon’s shot was held by McKeown, Rathbone’s free-kick seemed destined for the top corner, but it dropped over the crossbar and Kgosi Ntlhe’s header at the back post was off target.
The woodwork denied Calvin Andrew shortly after, as he got on the end of Joe Rafferty’s free-kick, but he saw his effort come off the upright before being scrambled away.
The hosts nearly found an equaliser as Whitmore’s headed effort was cleared away by McGahey, who was in the right place at the right time, denying the Mariners on the line.
Substitute Aaron Wilbraham was involved in Dale’s second of the evening. His lay-off to Rathbone put him in pole position to strike a powerful snapshot from 22-yards into the bottom corner of the net, sending Dale into the next round of the Carabao Cup.
Saturday 17th October 2009 – Grimsby Town 0-2 Dale
Before Dale’s last visit to Blundell Park, they had not played there since 2009.
A long ball from just inside Dale’s half was flicked on towards Adam Rundle, who showed quick feet to get away from two Grimsby defenders before slotting home to put Dale ahead in the 24th minute.
He then cleared a header from a Grimsby corner off the line, before Chris O’Grady doubled Dale’s lead five minutes from time. His deflected effort from substitute Joe Thompson’s pullback found the bottom corner beating Nick Colgan, who was in between the sticks for the Mariners.
This victory sent Dale into the League Two automatic promotion places, as the campaign ended in promotion to the third division, 41 years following our previous promotion.