O’Connell relishing time with Roberts
EOGHAN O’Connell and Haydon Roberts celebrated their first clean sheet as a partnership in the victory againsr Plymouth at Home Park last week and the captain confirmed he’s enjoying playing next to the on-loan Brighton youngster.
“Haydon makes it easy for me, he is a superb young player and you could see in the first day in training that he had a bit about him and he’s been superb, I really enjoy playing alongside him,” he said. O’Connell is only 25 years old himself, hardly a veteran – and he is thankful to have several helpful seniors around the squad.
And his leadership qualities came to the fire last week when he had to guide Dale through a tricky period at Plymouth after Jake Beesley was stretchered off the field following a heavy collision. Dale were leading 1-0 at the time through Beesley’s opening goal and the lengthy delay for treatment and seriousness of the injury could have taken focus away from the contest.
“I have some great senior players around here to bounce off and help me with everything and I’ve really enjoyed the extra bit of responsibility,” said O’Connell.
“With regards to Jake, it can affect things, especially that early in the game when things like that happen but I think once the game starts and you get into it you are in the zone and you are thinking about things that are happening in the game - you have to keep your mind going almost as much as your body in the break to keep focussed and we did that and settled in as soon as the game restarted.
“Our intention is always to win - we knew going down to Plymouth was going to be tough but when you get a start like we did it settles you into the game and it becomes about management of the game from there and we did that very well.
“We don’t get too down with results - we’ve played well in recent games when results haven’t gone our way. It’s a long season and it’s important that we stay with it and stick with the way we play. When it comes off everyone feels good and it’s great but the important thing is we stick to what we’re doing and keep going with it.”