IN OPPOSITION
SHARED 5-A-SIDE BEN SMITH
Rovers picked Smith up from Stockport County at the age of 18 in 2006. He made his debut for the club against Wycombe Wanderers in October of the same year. His performance against the Chairboys handed him a run of matches in goal but the eventual arrival of Scotsman Neil Sullivan resulted in less game time. Two-years after leaving the Keepmoat Stadium in 2010, he signed for Rochdale in League Two on non-contract terms to cover for Josh Lillis but failed to play and moved to the National League for the remainder of his career.
GEORGE FLOWERS
16
The Rochdale-born full-back started his career in Doncaster at Edlington Colliery Welfare in the early 20s but moved to Rovers in 1927, where he would spend most of his professional career making 161 appearances. He played for Rochdale for a period in the early years of the second World War, before hanging up his boots for good in 1940.
DAVE SYERS
Syers worked hard to make it to the Football League as he begun his career in non-league. He made the jump to full-time football with Bradford City where after two seasons he transferred to Rovers and helped earn promotion to the Championship, going up as champions one point ahead of Bournemouth. He joined Scunthorpe on a permanent deal in January 2014 and after two-years with the Iron moved across the Pennines to Rochdale where he spent six-months. After his release that summer, Syers returned to non-league football.
SIMON WHALEY
The rapid winger started his career in his home county at Bury, but that was followed by moves to Preston and Norwich. While at Norwich he was loaned out to Rochdale for a month in which he played every game for them. In November 2010 he was invited to train with Rovers to regain fitness due to an injury problem he picked up at Chesterfield earlier that year. He signed on noncontract terms in the Championship but did not make a single appearance, being an unused substitute against Portsmouth once.
PAUL WILLIAMS
The former Northern Ireland international had a varied Football League career bobbing between different clubs like Carlisle, Sheffield United and West Brom. His last permanent club was Rochdale where he played for between 1993 and 1996, but in the final year of his contract – and before retirement – he joined Rovers on a short-term loan where he scored once in three games.
