Defender all ready to take on former employers (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Defender all ready to take on former employers

7:10pm Monday 30th November 2009

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Simon Ramsden did not expect Rochdale to have suffered a sleepless night about the prospect of facing him.

The reliable defender tomorrow comes up against his former club in the league for the first time since a summer move across the Pennines.

And while Ramsden has been happy to pass on any insider tips to City, he is not sure Dale will be paying as close attention to their former employee.

Ramsden, who played 124 games for the club, laughed: “Of course they know all about me but I don’t think they will be too bothered about a right back!

“But it definitely has its pluses knowing the majority of their side inside out. I trained with them day-in, day-out for a couple of years.

“If the gaffer wants to know certain aspects of how people play, then I’m sure he’ll come to me and Simon Whaley. If I can tell others in the team to watch out for certain things, then I’ll do anything to help.”

Not that City will need any reminding about how well Rochdale are currently playing. Recent wins against Bournemouth, Dagenham and Notts County have underlined that.

But Ramsden sees no reason for any inferiority complex, particularly with the way City swept aside Grimsby in their last outing.

He said: “Rochdale are in very good form at the minute. But we’ve come off a 3-0 win, so the lads are full of confidence in our dressing room as well.

“We’re not going into this thinking ‘this is Rochdale who are second in the league’. We’ve got enough in our team to cause them problems.

“We’re the home team and hopefully we can stamp our authority on the match.

“You want to test yourselves against the best sides in the division and Rochdale are right up there.

“If they win tomorrow, they can go top, and if we win, we can maybe scrape into the play-off positions.

“The importance of the game is there for everyone to see and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Ramsden, a Wembley loser with Rochdale in the 2008 play-offs, credits boss Keith Hill with getting his career back on track.

“I was out of the side when the manager took over and he restored my confidence,” he said.

“I still keep in touch with most people there and it will be nice to catch up with the staff and manager afterwards, hopefully when we’ve won.”

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