Of course, there's players who've gone to higher things, but we don't know yet how Matthew's career will develop, but I can think of very few players that we have brought through from youth who have had more of an impact on our actual first team.

Certainly, in terms of appearances, there's only the likes of Dave Bayliss and Dave Thompson who've perhaps made more appearances for Dale having been given their start here.

Gilks' time with Dale began with the School of Excellence as a 13 year old, as he joined his local side, and things pretty much moved on from there. After successfully graduated from there, he was awarded a scholarship.

He made his Dale debut in what looked to be the much clichéd baptism of fire. Dale, who were on the crest of a slump, were away at the league leaders with keeper Edwards suspended and Gilks was thrown in, and if memory serves me right, he played the game despite carrying an injury. He certainly didn't let anyone down on his debut, and it was only a last minute goal prevented us escaping with all three points.

It was the following season, where he really started to make an impact at Spotland. With injuries really starting to take their toll on Neil Edwards, there were plenty of first team opportunities for Gilks, and he made a total of 19 appearances for the club that season. Without doubt, the most memorable was the 9/11 game against Fulham where we drew 2-2, before eventually losing on sudden death penalties. It was a game in which Gilks won plenty of plaudits.

He made a similar number of appearances per season over the next couple of seasons, as he was called into action far more than your average back up keeper would be, but the turning point came during the 2004-5 season, when yet another Neil Edwards injury saw  Gilks back in the first team and this time he made the shirt his own.

The start of the run began at the luxurious Deva Stadium in the Auto Windscreen Shields or whatever it was called that year, and he never looked back. It was the start of a run in which he played every single minute of every single game for the remainder of his time with Dale.

That season where he established himself as first choice keeper saw him help equal the club record for clean sheets with sixteen clean sheets in thirty five appearances, and saw Gilks rewarded with a new two year contract, with clubs from higher divisions starting to sniff round him for the first time.

The following season saw him ever present for the first time in a Dale shirt, and whilst it wasn't a successful season for the club, it was another season where Gilks firmly established himself, and the days of him being just a young up and coming keeper were very much behind him.

His finest season, was without doubt his last season at the club. Ever present again, he saved a number of penalties and kept nineteen clean sheets along the way. Like the rest of the squad, his form improved under Keith Hill keeping clean sheets in half the games.

But as was expected, his contract ran out of the 2006-7 season, and it was always going to be difficult to retain his services. So it was no surprise when he signed for Norwich in June 2007, as the Canaries had been long time admirers of him.

We've not worked out the stats, but his 135 consecutive games for the club must be up there with anyone who has played for the club. Certainly would imagine it hasn't been done since the days when Keith Welch was between our sticks.

In his early time with the club, it was clear we had a decent prospect, but without doubt there was an issue with his distribution, with many kicks heading straight into touch. Whilst, it was clear that Gilks had worked hard on overcoming this, with great success, getting rid of the reputation proved to be much more difficult, and he was often on the receiving end of catcalls from the stands should any kick not reach its intended target, even though it was clear we saw opposition keepers do this far, far more times that Gilks did in the past couple of seasons.

In fact, his distribution ended up being on the real strengths of his game. Many an attack was launched, as Gilks could throw the ball almost Schmeichel like towards the Dale wings. It was an ability that he seldom was given credit for.

But his main strength was without doubt his shot stopping (which is pretty useful for a goalkeeper). One of the game stands out for me, and that was Chester (a) in his final season. Truth be told, it was a pretty dire game and he'd had nothing to do for the first 89 minutes of it, but the four minutes of injury time was proper Alamo stuff, and Gilks tipped over this thunderbolt of a shot that was tipped over before most people had even seen the shot. And those that had seen the shot had just assumed it was going on. A save of the highest order.

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