Trotters took hosts into new territory

ROCHDALE found themselves in new territory twice on Tuesday evening as Bolton got their noses in front during the Carabao Cup first round tie.

When Ronan Darcy fired the Trotter ahead in the 14th minute it was the first time that Dale had found themselves behind this season and Brian Barry-Murphy was happy with the way his players responded to that goal and to Dennis Politic’s effort two minutes into the second period which saw Bolton take a 2-1 lead.

“It was a great test for us all, myself included,” said BBM. “We’ve had a good run at home and we’ve gone in front in a lot of games, so to see us go behind was a great test and I was looking for how we behave in terms of our behaviour and how we play.

“We continued to play the way I want us to play and we provided some great attacking movements that caused Bolton a lot of problems.

“I think we would have scored some of our goals against any opposition.

“There has been a lot of talk about Bolton having a very, very young team but we had a lot of young lads on to the pitch too with a couple of older guys. I thought we were very good in different periods of the game, although some of our defensive play can obviously be worked on.”

It was a battle of the youngsters, as two youthful sides, complemented with some older heads, went up against each other in the tie.

There were twelve players in Dale’s squad who were aged 23 and under, and BBM says that is very pleasing.

“Bolton should be very proud of their players, which I’m sure they are, and there’s a great feeling amongst their players and the staff.

“But our own production line is rich at the moment and we’ve got great players coming through.

“We’ve always worked off the balance of having real good established pros who help those players come on, and we feel as if we’ve got that at the moment.

“It’s great competition and this is also a great competition for our young players to play in, and generally, I think it has been a great night all over for us.”