Dooley’s delight at surprise
STEPHEN Dooley admitted he was a surprised recipient of the man of the match award following Tuesday’s 5-2 win against Bolton.
Dooley felt two-goal Callum Camps was nailed on for the award – but was grateful that his telling contribution to the win was recognised.
“It was nice to be named man of the match – I wasn’t really expecting it. I thought with Campsy scoring two crackers I assumed it was going there, so I appreciated that!” he said. “It’s always nice to pcik up the individual awards but the main thing was safe passage into the next round of the competition.
“It’s great to get through because Bolton came here with a young team and the pressure was all on us. It was great for us to get five goals, and for me to get a couple of assists and get us safely through into the next round.
“We don’t want to be going behind to often but the it was pleasing to keep our heads, keep our composure at 2-1 down midway through the second half and come back to score four more goals and see out the game playing some good football was very satisfying.
“It’s been a really good pre-season and I’ve started the first three games so that’s been really good because we have a very competitive squad and it’s hard to even get on the bench at times, let alone the pitch, so it’s been a good start –bar the own goal I scored on the opening day!”
And Dooley says the future looks bright for Dale.
“We have some very good young boys coming through,” he said. “We had Luke Matheson out there who is extremely young, though he doesn’t seem it anymore because he’s had enough games and he’s just part of the group.
“There are a few more coming through and I’m sure you will see a few more coming through during the season.”