Chris Beech was the guest of honour at hospitality for the home match against York City in the FA Cup, recounting his time in professional football at Rochdale as player, coach and assistant manager.
DOB: 16 September 1974
Also played for: Blackpool, Hartlepool United, Huddersfield Town, Doncaster Rovers, Carlisle United
Chris joined Dale in the Summer of 2002, becoming fledgling manager Paul Simpson’s first signing coming to Spotland on a free transfer from Huddersfield Town having spent four years with the McAlpine Stadium Club, he made 35 appearances between 2002-04 scoring two goals but failed to make a deep impression mainly due to injury.
After leaving Dale, he had a couple of brief spells with Doncaster Rovers and Carlisle United before retiring, which saw him move into coaching having a successful spell running the Youth section at Bury FC. His time with Shakers didn’t go unnoticed and Dale boss Keith Hill, who had come up against him during his own time in a similar position, was quick to take him to Spotland becoming the Club’s new Youth Team Coach. He also assumed responsibility for the reserve side and the Academy (Centre of Excellence) This became the start of a 12 year relationship that would see Chris being noted with the reputation for establishing young talented footballers with a stream coming through the Club’s youth system and either established themselves in the first team or transferred for substantial fees, these included Will Buckley, Scott Hogan, Jamie Allen, Callum Camps, and Andy Cannon.
Chris spent time with SC Braga in Portugal in 2009 to complete his Academy Managers course which helped shape his philosophy on football player development and he went on to complete his UEFA Pro License in 2010 with the visit of fellow candidate Gianfranco Zola to Rochdale to complete the FA assessment criteria.
In December 2011, Chris was appointed caretaker manager at Rochdale for a month following Steve Eyre’s dismissal, which saw Rochdale picking up three points from the six games in which he took charge of before John Coleman was installed as the permanent manager, with him returning to his role as youth team manager.
Keith Hill returned to Rochdale as manager in January 2013 replacing John Coleman, and confirmed Chris was to be his new assistant manager, this the start of arguably the most successful period in the Club’s history, spanning six seasons through to March 2019, winning promotion to EFL League One at the first time of asking in 2014 and achieving consecutive top ten finishes on minimal finance plus several successful FA Cup runs, the highlight reaching the FA Cup 5th round and taking Premiership Tottenham Hotspur in February 2018 to a replay at Wembley, then managed by Mauricio Pochettino.
Unfortunately, Chris left Rochdale along with Keith Hill in March 2019 after a poor run of form