Dale out to build on Wigan wonder show
EFL Manager of the Week Brian BarryMurphy will encourage his side to pick up where they left off as they entertain Gillingham at the Crown Oil Arena this afternoon.
Dale head into the fixture, which kicks off at 1pm, on the back of a thrilling 5-0 win at Wigan on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, supporters will not be able to watch the match in the stadium as had been hoped, due to the Government’s decision to keep the area in Tier 3 restrictions.
That came as a bitter blow to club officials and supporters alike – and BBM’s boys will be out to lighten the mood by following up their Wigan wonder show with another good performance against the Gills today.
Dale bounced back brilliantly from last weekend’s 4-1 loss at Peterborough and the manager put that down to the players themselves.
“The lads have been the catalyst for it [responding to defeats],” he said. “They’ve been my biggest source of inspiration in terms of that. They are the ones who have driven that and every time we get a bad defeat they remind me about what I said last season about focusing on what we set in stone last season – focusing on our performances and trying to get better every day.
“Everyone says that, but the real test is when it gets difficult. We feel as if our results have been relatively good and the performance was very, very good.
“We implemented a lot of what we wanted to do on Saturday but obviously
Saturday became difficult because of Peterborough’s goals we conceded early.”
He added: “Our attacking play was pretty clinical (at Wigan). There have been games where we’ve had similar phases but just haven’t managed to find the final bit of it, so to see that produced was very satisfying.
“It’s brilliant for me because I see the lads wanting to improve that every day. Since the first game of the season against
Huddersfield, we’ve been working on different sections of the pitch and real detail in the final third movement. Some days that doesn’t come to fruition, but the lads’ attitude to work on it is inspiring and great to be part of it.
“I thought the performance was very good and the lads bounced back amazingly well from a performance that we didn’t think was up to our usual standards at Peterborough. The disappointment about that [performance at Peterborough] was that we didn’t put into practice what we had planned to do all week, but that’s just the nature of the game and we came up against an opponent who were very hot that day.
“To see us play with so much fluidity and verve off the back of that was testament to the players willing to continue to bounce back at every opportunity this season.”
Goalkeeper Jay Lynch kept a clean sheet in the victory, most notably keeping out Tom James with a fine save in the first half when the game was poised a 2-0.
“Those margins are evident in every game and we don’t always like to admit how much they define games, but there was literally no goal mouth action until the referee gave Peterborough a penalty last Saturday.
“I never mention referees, but on review, it clearly wasn’t a penalty.
“We looked really controlled and good [at Wigan], and Jay makes a key save that maintains that lead and we go on to control the rest of the game.
“There are always fine margins of play, and, as such, it underpins our overall philosophy in that we just want to really focus on the way we play and get better at that and add more facets to that.
“If we lose games on any given week we want to have an understanding of why, and it’s the methodology and mantra that has served the lads really well in terms of understanding the way we want to work and has given them clarity in times when we don’t get the results we want.”
Jimmy Ryan was forced off in the first half following a hefty challenge and BBM is hoping that it’s nothing too serious.
“The initial suggestion is that he doesn’t think there is anything too major to worry about. But again, it was a pretty heavy tackle and Jimmy felt the
‘It’s brilliant because I see the lads wanting to improve every day’
full force of it, so we’re just waiting with bated breath again,” he said.
“One of the biggest issues is that we have a very small squad.
“One of the beauties of that is that you see Ethan (Brierley), Kwadwo or Fabio (Tavares) playing, but it ends up being stretched very quickly and we go into the weekend missing a lot of players again on top of four key players who are already missing.
“That can have a pretty significant bearing on results for us but hopefully it won’t make any difference to our performances and hopefully Jimmy Ryan will be ok.”