Dale visit tough for both teams
JOHN Coleman is anticipating a tough encounter tomorrow when he crosses swords with former club Rochdale at the Wham Stadium.
The Reds go into the League One clash against Brian Barry-Murphy’s men on the back of a morale-boosting away win at AFC Wimbledon last weekend, and followed that up with a midweek bonus point win against Blackpool in the EFL Trophy.
This weekend’s opponents picked up their first win of the campaign last time out, beating Fleetwood 2-1 at the Crown Oil Arena, so there will be no shortage of confidence on either side.
Coley said the game will be tough – but that doesn’t make it any different to any other fixture Stanley face.
“Rochdale had a fantastic win at the weekend, beating Fleetwood – we expect every game we play to be tough but we also expect that we can give other teams a tough game,” he said.
“If you don’t want to be in that situation where it’s demanding, don’t go in the league! It’s part and parcel of climbing the leagues and I’m relishing every test that we’ve got. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t stressful! But I really enjoy the stress.”
The Reds had to come from behind to secure their 2-1 win at Wimbledon with Ross Sykes and Matt Butcher on the scoresheet. It was a contest that reinforced how large a role luck plays in the game for Coleman.
“It was a good game, two contrasting styles of football – they are a good side, Wimbledon, as their results have shown already this season,” he said.
“They score plenty of goals and they are dangerous, they have really good players.
“We just needed to pass the ball better and that’s what we have tried to focus on in the last week and I thought we did that, we created some chances, rode our luck a little bit and you can’t underestimate how much luck plays a part in football, little breaks here and there that go for you. We had them today.
“You think it’s not going to be your day when they hit the post and the ball falls right to their lad for a good poacher’s finish.
“But we scrapped away and got the two goals and then the post saved us late on. Little things were breaking for us at the right time, fouls here and there, stoppages of play which broke play up and frustrated Wimbledon a little bit. There will be plenty of games for both sides like that, but if both teams continue playing in that vein of form, I think we should be safe.
“It’s always very difficult to come from behind in this league, especially against a team of Wimbledon’s quality.
“We just have to believe in ourselves and pass the ball more. We are in our infancy, we’ve given five or six league debuts to players and that’s a lot to gel at once.
“You have to be patient with these lads. Ryan Cassidy has played four league games in his life and we’re expecting him to be like Joe Pigott (of Wimbledon) but that only comes from the experience of playing games.”