Rochdale apologise for crowd violence at Oldham Athletic match

Rochdale have apologised to supporters following the violence at Saturday’s local derby with Oldham Athletic.

There were some unsavory scenes at Spotland with a number of Oldham fans buying tickets in the home end and a number of arrests were made.

Many Oldham and Rochdale fans share the same postcode, so some visiting fans were able to buy tickets in the home end.

A Rochdale club statement read: “We would like to apologise to any supporter who got caught up in, or witnessed any of the unsavoury incidents that occurred at Spotland Stadium during Saturday's match against Oldham Athletic.

“With a season's record crowd in attendance, sadly a small number of individuals provoked unwelcome scenes, where the vast majority of supporters were well behaved and were trying to enjoy the atmosphere of a local derby.

“Planning for this match commenced back in June when club officials met with representatives of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) following the release of the fixtures ahead of the new season. Previous meetings between the two clubs and up to date intelligence were key factors in identifying this game as Category C fixture, which is the highest category of policed games at Spotland Stadium.

“It was agreed that the match would also be categorised as “all ticket” for Oldham supporters only, and that just over 3200 tickets would be made available to Oldham supporters in the Willbutts Lane away stand. T

“A number of questions have been raised as to why the match was not made “all ticket” which means tickets are not sold on the day of the game and there are no cash turnstiles on the day. Making the game “all ticket” would not have prevented Oldham supporters buying tickets in the home areas of the ground once the Oldham allocation had sold out.

“Given the close geographical proximity of Oldham to Rochdale it would be very easy for an Oldham supporter, who was unable to buy a ticket from the Oldham ticket office, to call at the Rochdale ticket office to purchase a ticket.

“Aware of the fact that the Oldham allocation became sold out in the run up to the fixture, warnings were issued to Oldham supporters not to buy tickets from the Rochdale ticket office or attempt to pay cash at the turnstiles on the day.

“Rochdale ticket office staff were vigilant in trying to ensure that Oldham supporters did not purchase tickets in home areas, and indeed some sales were refused. The difficulty given the geographical closeness of both clubs is that both sets of supporters share OL- Oldham postcodes, indeed Spotland Stadium itself has an OL postcode.”