We Caught Up With The New First Team Signings and Academy Players

Today we spoke to both Academy players who have signed on with the first team, Carter Waters and Cameron Fogerty.

Speaking of how he got into football at an early age and how he eventually joined the the Academy in pre-season 2019/20, Carter said “I started my junior football at Brockland Dragons at under 9s through to the under 14s, from there I progressed to Broadheath Central under 15s. Then my mum contacted someone at Rochdale EDS and I was able to get me a place here.” Carter beleives joining the Academy has helped him develop so much more as a player and person, and is grateful for the opportunity.

Carter then went onto talk about the teams recent run in the FA Youth Cup, saying he was “so proud of the whole team in progressing into the First Round Proper, after winning the initial preliminary round and then three qualifying rounds.” But gutted to have gone out on penalties away to Tranmere Rovers, saying it was not the best way to have gone out.

On signing for the first team, Carter continued “I’m chuffed, honestly, very chuffed, and so proud of myself. My plan is to just progress and keep on pushing and developing into a better player.” Carter beleives the help he has had from his family and the players around him, have helped Carter immensely, but says, more importantly, he couldn’t have done that without the support and help he has received from the Academy staff, who have made him into the player he is, saying it has been an amazing journey.

 

Cameron told us how he started his football journey, saying “I started off at Bridge Colts, my local team, then I had a couple of trials at academys, United and Blackburn. I moved to Avro, which is local to here, after playing well there I got signed for Oldham under 12s, where I stayed through to under 15s. After getting released by Oldham I joined the Academy here at under 16s, and stayed on to do the full time education and scholarhsip.” Cameron says he has loved being at the Academy, and getting to know everyone after joining the under 16s very late and explained that he thinks over the last 16 months, they have done really well as a team and all developed so much.

On the FA Youth Cup run, Cameron said “The most emotional game for me was the Stockport County game in the third qualifying round, when we scored in the 96th minute to win. The Runcorn Linnetts game was different, a tough one, we had never played a night game. Against Southport here, we dominated, that was good, but I think the Stockport game was the best one in the qualifying rounds.” On the First Round game away to Tranmere, Cameron said it was a good experience on a good pitch, but was gutted to go out as they did.

On signing for the first team, Cameron is looking forward to getting into training with the First Team and to get involved in some match day squads to hopefully become a regular, to see how far he can go.

On his time at the Academy, Cameron has been trained by a number of coaches, who all know the game and have played at different levels themselves. He beleives they have helped him massively and are there everyday for him. On closing Cameron said “The facilities are greate and the pitch is massive, and we get what we need to help us develop as players.”