Dale’s plum tie at Old Trafford
BBM’s boys to face Manchester United at Theatre of Dreams in tasty Carabao Cup clash
ROCHDALE’S reward for reaching the third round of the Carabao Cup is a dream trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United.
Dale beat Carlisle 2-1 on Tuesday evening to secure their place in the draw, which took place 24 hours later and saw Brian Barry-Murphy’s men land arguably the most coveted tie in English cup competitions.
It’s a repeat of the FA Cup thirdround clash of January 1986 when Dale took on the pre-Alex Ferguson Reds and were beaten 2-0.
The tie will take place the week beginning September 23.
Dale players reacted with understandable excitement to the draw and the prospect of running out at one of European football’s top venues.
Jimmy Keohane, who teed up Aaron Morley for the opening goal against Carlisle in midweek, tweeted: “We’ll take that, Old Trafford bound.”
Morley, just 19 years
old, described it as a ‘Dream come true!’ while the recentlyretired Joe Thompson said: “Absolutely buzzing an away draw at @ ManUtd in #CarabaoCup. @officiallydale truly deserve this .... really looking forward to see the boys play at ‘Theatre of Dreams.” Morley’s sumptuous strike and a second from Matty Done sealed the win against Carlisle in midweek and boss BBM said: “We had to be quite patient in a lot of our work in the first half because Carlisle keep the ball really well. “Aaron is starting to get towards the opposition box, and his shooting and his final end product are exceptional, so we’re very conscious that when he’s working with someone like Jimmy Ryan or MJ Williams, he catches up with play quite quickly and he adds another threat to our attacking play with his shooting. “Matty had quite a serious achilles problem in the summer and he has been building up towards fitness. I’m very conscious of the fact that I don’t want to push him too hard, too early. There were still parts of his game where he was quite sore, but he was really pushing himself to try and get back into the flow of things from a fitness point of view.
“I thought some of his movement was exceptional, and as Matty Done does, he makes penetrating runs. There won’t be many players in the position he was in for the Carlisle mistake that led to his goal. His finish was typical, really clinical.”
BBM admitted he was ‘agitated’ during the closing periods of the game after Carlisle had pulled a goal back and were going all out to salvage the tie.
“I was agitated at times in the second half because I knew how good they have been during spells in games and I knew they would come at us hard, but some of our play was exceptional and we were very good,” he said. “It was a great game and I really enjoyed it.
“Carlisle are a very good side and I think it would have been disrespectful of us to think that we could just over-run them and try to take the ball off them in dangerous areas of the pitch. They want you to come onto them and expose your defensive line.
“I thought we were very patient in the way we waited for opportunities to spring into life, and we were quite aggressive in the way we won the ball back. I was happy with that and the discipline we showed.
“A lot of the work that the staff have been doing with the players over the summer in trying to be defensive and winning the ball back in different areas of the pitch bore fruit. We looked quite dangerous when we won the ball back. We obviously want to have control by having more possession than the opposition, but we’re not too big in our boots to disrespect the opposition and think they won’t have spells in the game where they control it and they did for parts of it.”
Meanwhile, Dale’s League One fixture against Ipswich Town, due to be played at the Crown Oil Arena on Saturday 7th September, has been postponed due a number of opposition players being called up for international duty.
The match will now be played on Tuesday 5th November 2019, 7.45pm KO. Tickets purchased for the original fixture will be valid for the rearranged match. Should fans not be able to make the new date, then they will be entitled to a full refund. Visit/ contact the Dale Ticket Office to receive your refund.