IF ANY set of supporters deserve some centenary success, surely it’s the loyal band who follow Rochdale.

The club who host Town tomorrow have reached their 100th year having never been out of what are now Leagues I and II.

Dale, Football League members since 1921, have been in the basement division since 1974, when older fans might recall them being hastened on their way to relegation by a 5-0 mauling by Town at Leeds Road.

In fact the club’s only real claim to fame is being the only one from the bottom section to reach a major cup final.

That was in 1962, when in only the second year of the League Cup, they were involved a two-legged showdown with Norwich, who took the trophy with a 4-0 aggregate win.

The Sixties swung again seven years later, when Len Richley managed to engineer what many of the faithful considered impossible – promotion to the original Third Division.

The only other time Dale had been there was when it was first formed in 1958.

The redevelopment of Spotland, which is shared with the town’s rugby league club Rochdale Hornets, has been accompanied by more hopeful seasons on the field.

The best of them came under John Hollins in 2001-02, when Dale made the play-offs, only to lose out to Rushden in the semi-finals.

Since then a second spell at the helm for Steve Parkin has failed to bring the much-longed for promotion.

But the club hope current boss Keith Hill can deliver.

Town chief Andy Ritchie was in the running when former Dale player Hill, then the club’s director of youth football, was handed the reins in succession to Parkin in December.

His charges were third from bottom at the time, but recovered to reach a final placing of ninth.

Hill has been busy over the close-season, bringing in ex-Town player Chris Beech to take over his old job as youth supremo plus a string of new players.

Beech, who applied to become Town manager after the departure of Peter Jackson in March, had been in the same role at Bury.

Boosting the playing roster are goalkeeper James Spencer, signed from Stockport, defenders Tom Kennedy (Bury) and Nathan D’Laryea (Manchester City), winger Ben Muirhead (Bradford) and strikers Adam Le Fondre (Stockport) and Kallum Higginbottom (Oldham).

“We know about Adam and Ben having had them on loan last season,” explained Hill.

“James and Tom are good players who have lost their way a bit.

“We look on them as Sam Allardyce-type signings, in other words we feel we can get the best out of them when others might not have done.

“Kallum is an uncut diamond who has electric pace, and I am sure Nathan could have signed for another club, but he wanted to come here as he feels we are ambitious.

“The word has gone round that players like what myself and (assistant) Dave Flitcroft are doing here.

“They like the way we work, and young players now want to come here and be a part of what is going on.

Hill, who has also handed full-time deals to five youth players, an unprecedented number for the club, took his squad to a pre-season training camp in Spain.

And they recorded an encouraging 2-1 friendly win over Oldham on Tuesday, when Le Fondre (penalty) and Chris Dagnall scored.