Supporting Rochdale should come with a health warning. For all that football has a wonderful propensity for drama, few clubs have ever packed in the heartstopping tension of their past fortnight. But, after it all, they are a Football League club again. And that is all that matters.
Hopes of returning to the ranks of the country’s top 92 clubs looked to have disintegrated with seconds remaining for Boreham Wood to cling on for victory in this extraordinary National League playoff final. Then came Mani Dieseruvwe’s 97th-minute equaliser to send the match into extra time that preceded penalties.
Step up Oliver Whatmuff, an 18-year-old goalkeeper on loan from Manchester City, who began the weekend named in the National League team of the season and ended it as Rochdale’s other hero, saving twice to secure a 3-1 shootout triumph after 120 minutes had left the teams deadlocked.
Given what they had been through a fortnight earlier, it was almost too much for Rochdale fans to take. Dieseruvwe looked to have rendered this torturous playoff route irrelevant with a goal in the 95th minute against York that prompted a pitch invasion of pure exhilaration. Eight minutes later, York memorably hit back to clinch the National League title, inflicting sheer devastation.
Many suggested the emotional toll of that last-ditch defeat would be too great to recover from, but this is a club built on resilience. Having played in League One as recently as 2020-21, the end of their 102-year Football League stay was almost followed by total demise, only to narrowly avoid liquidation amid major financial problems. Now solvent again off the pitch, they find themselves back in League Two. And in what remarkable fashion.
“I feel like it was destined to end this way,” said Rochdale’s manager, Jimmy McNulty. “The season itself has been incredible: the points tally, the performances, the guts, the character, the late goals. At 2-0 down, it’s tricky, but our belief was still there. It does feel like some sort of footballing justice was served today.”
Defeat was horribly cruel on a Boreham Wood team who dominated the bulk of the action and led 2-0 with 12 minutes of normal time remaining. A veteran of 140 appearances as a Boreham Wood player and more than 500 as manager, Luke Garrard has now twice overseen defeat on this same playoff final stage.
“Unfortunately, we had one foot in the EFL and it wasn’t to be,” said a tearful Garrard. “I thought I liked Wembley, but I’m not a fan of it. I’ve been here twice now and not been victorious. I can’t look my kids in the face because they will think daddy has failed. I’m getting emotional now, because that’s me as a human being. It was there. It was there …”
For all the debate around the merits of the 3UP campaign and whether a team finishing on 106 points should be automatically rewarded promotion, Rochdale produced little to suggest they were worthy of victory for much of this standalone showdown. Second best throughout the first half, they were frequently powerless to halt the wizardry of Abdul Abdulmalik, who created Boreham Wood’s opener, working space to whip a fearsome cross that possessed sufficient pace for Matt Rush to guide it into the far corner with his chest.
Greater Rochdale endeavour in the second half came with greater danger: Rush sidefooted a weak volley straight at the goalkeeper, Abdulmalik jinked round almost the entire opposition defence before his shot was blocked, and Leon Ayinde dragged an effort wide.
A second Boreham Wood goal seemed inevitable, and when a corner reached Abdulmalik beyond the far post, he drilled his shot through bodies into the net.
The silent Rochdale supporters sprang into life when a long Whatmuff ball deflected straight into Tyler Smith’s path and the substitute buried his finish from the edge of the penalty area. Then, with time almost up, Rochdale’s propensity for the absurd struck again when Dieseruvwe’s header bounced off James Clarke’s back and into the net to prompt extra time.
The additional 30 minutes passed in a cramp-filled stalemate devoid of ambition. Both teams gambled on winning from the penalty spot, and Whatmuff was on hand to deliver.
“When I brought him to the club, there was noise because he was 17 at the time,” said McNulty of his goalkeeper. “To some, it seemed like madness; to me, it seemed like pure sense. I genuinely think he’ll be England’s No 1 one day.”
