Wally meets... Chris Dunphy

By Mike Walters

Published 22:45 29/01/10

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Say your prayers for Rochdale to win promotion at last - follow chairman Chris Dunphy to work.

Apart from steering the runaway League Two leaders towards the loft hatch, Dunphy runs the only company in Europe which specialises in heating ancient churches and cathedrals.

And when the mighty Dale are playing away from Spotland, Dunphy organises site visits, diocese consultations or installations in the part of the country where Keith Hill’s men just happen to be playing.

So there shouldn’t be many brides freezing at the altar or vicars suffering from hypothermia during evensong in the Greater Manchester area this weekend - because Rochdale are nipping down the A58 to neighbours Bury on Monday night.

Dunphy, 59, is a throwback to the days when football clubs were run by the local butcher, baker or ecclesiastical heating engineer instead of easy meat for overseas opportunists.

And if Dale, promoted only once in the club’s history - back in 1969 - capitalise on their 10-point cushion, it won’t just be men of the cloth celebrating a tale of pulpit fiction among the old textile mills.

“I’ve never been in the clergy myself, although I was brought up as a Christian,” said Dunphy. “I set up the company in 1973, but even now I’m now sure how I came to specialise in churches. I think they chose me, not the other way round.

“It’s a complex business which is more about protecting ancient stonework and crypts than just mounting a few radiators on the walls. It wouldn’t look in the history books good if a medieval church was destroyed because the heating installation went wrong.”

Dunphy’s other religion, of course, is football. Rochdale has always been his club and, like all proper fans, he can’t understand the prawn sandwich brigade who jump ship to ’bigger’ clubs when the going gets tough.

As a boy, he used to walk four miles from his home in Milnrow to every home game, knocking on the doors of fellow diehards en route to form a rolling band of brothers.

“Some games the group of friends was bigger than others,” he said. “When we got to the League Cup final against Norwich in 1961-2, there must have been 30 or 40 of us snaking down the road before the home leg.

“People born less than 50 years ago probably wouldn’t believe that a club like Rochdale once reached the League Cup final, but the gap between top clubs and the lower divisions wasn’t so big in those days.

“There’s a club down the road from here loaded with £719 million of debt, but if our overdraft goes above £50,000 I’ve got the bank manager on the phone to me.

“And Premier League teams don’t come shopping in places like Rochdale any more. They prefer spending £25 million on foreign players who can do a few tricks with the ball even if they haven’t got a work ethic.

“We’ve just sold Will Buckley to Watford for £300,000 and that money will stabilise the club for the rest of the season. Our big payday will come when he moves on to someone like Tottenham for £5m and we get a percentage of the sell-on.”

Like the Premier League’s designer label shopping habits, Dunphy is also wary of the trend towards foreign ownership. At Spotland, the buck stops in the first row of pews, but the owners of billion-dollar corporations nearby remain shadowy and elusive.

Dunphy said: “I don’t see what’s in it for some of them. The people now in charge at Manchester City have put a shipload of money into the club, but I can’t see where the payback is going to come. If they wanted immortality, they could have come to Rochdale and built the dream for £5m.

“We play some great football, and if there has been a more entertaining team than us to watch this season, I’ve not seen them.”

Dale, pipped in the play-off final by Stockport two years ago, are a tribute to their manager Keith Hill - although Dunphy fears he is already hot property destined for higher leagues whether they are promoted or not.

He added: “If I’m honest, Keith has done such a fantastic job that we may not be able to keep hold of him much longer. There will come a time when he outgrows us us - in fact, he’s probably outgrowing us already.

“What I’m not prepared to do is to bankrupt the club in order to fund promotion. We may have a smashing team to watch, but my priority is to keep us in business.”

Meanwhile, good news for the people of Aberdeen. Dunphy’s firm starts work on St Machars Cathedral a week on Monday. The moderator of the Church of Scotland will be pleased to do business with the managing director at the church of Spotland.

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