Keith Hill is confirmed as the guest of honour at hospitality for the match against Southend United on Thursday 15th May, he will undoubtedly be telling us of his legendary time, both as a player and manager at Rochdale.
Date of birth: 17th May 1969
Debut for Dale: 17th August 1996 v Swansea City Away 1-2
Also played for: Blackburn Rovers, Plymouth Argyle, Cheltenham Town, Wrexham, Morecambe
Time at Dale: Keith was snapped up by Dale manager Graham Barrow in 1996 forming a terrific partnership with fellow central defender Alan Johnson before the arrival of Mark Monington.
Keith was given another contract at Spotland and he went on to have a successful season in 1999-2000 under new manager Steve Parkin but picking up a large number of bookings lead to a couple of suspensions.
His final season during 2000/1 season saw him only played around half the games but it raised many an eyebrow when he left to play for Cheltenham.
Following his retirement from playing, Keith joined Dale’s coaching staff, where he held the position of Director of Youth before being appointed as caretaker manager following the departure of Steve Parkin then appointed as permanent manager on 3rd January 2007 as we ended the season in ninth spot, despite being in the bottom three for the majority of the first half of the season.
In his first full season as Dale boss, he took Rochdale to the 2007/8 League Two play off final, where we devastatingly lost 2-3 against Stockport County followed next season by losing out in play off semi final against Gillingham but the next season saw automatic promotion, after a 1–0 win against Northampton Town on 17th April 2010 with 68 points, the highest league finish since the 1969/70 season.
Following success at Rochdale, he left to take on a position as Barnsley manager before returning to Rochdale after the sacking of John Coleman on 22nd January 2013.
Rochdale achieved promotion under Keith for a second time on 26 April 2014 after a 2–0 win against Cheltenham seeing us back to League One.
(Taken from Rochdale FansNet)