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Millers' misery raises hopes of chasing pack

Daniel Willers
22/ 3/2008

AS MUCH as it pains any fan of football to see a club enter administration, the nature of the beast dictates that where one door closes another opens.

Rotherham United’s entry into administration – the second time the club has experienced such dire straights – meant a 10-point deduction for Millers. Their drop from seventh in League Two down to 11th, while a sad indictment of the game, will have been greeted with heightened interest among the play-off chasing pack, boosting the hopefuls’ chances of attaining a top-seven spot.

Rochdale are one such club. At the start of the week Dale were ninth in the table, five points adrift of Rotherham who occupied the last play-off spot in the table.

But ahead of today's trip to Notts County, Dale find themselves eighth, five points ahead of the South Yorkshire side and just a point shy of a play-off place.

Currently, Dale stand on 56 points with games in hand on all the play-off candidates, including two games on fifth-placed Stockport who have 65 points, three games on 63-point Wycombe and Chesterfield with 57 points.

As promising as it appears, the competition Dale face in reaching the play-offs for the first time since the 2001/02 season is still fierce. All the teams, from Stockport down to Rotherham, are still very much in the race.

Even Lincoln City’s caretaker manager Iffy Onuora this week claimed his team could yet mount a challenge.

The Imps’ chances are slight, however, and it is more likely that the play-off contenders will come from those clubs currently occupying places between fourth and 11th in the standings.

If we take it MK Dons and Peterborough are going up automatically, with either Hereford or Darlington joining them (the other taking up the first play-off spot), that leaves three slots available.

On paper, Morecambe (ninth) and Stockport (fifth) look to have the most difficult end to the season of all the hopefuls.

Stockport still have to travel to Peterborough and Wycombe as well as having home fixtures against Darlington and MK Dons, while Morecambe must visit Darlington, MK Dons, and Spotland on 19 April. They have home games against Wycombe and Chesterfiled.

Whisper it quietly, but Dale appear to have one of the better run-ins, albeit a hectic one, with 11 games to play over the next six weeks. All those clashes are against teams currently below them in the table.