Taking positives into Town encounter
BRIAN Barry-murphy insisted his squad would take the positives from the second half performance at Portsmouth into the Easter Monday clash against Ipswich Town at the Crown Oil Arena.
Dale were better after the break at Fratton Park and BBM was looking for a similar show over 90 minutes.
“We have quite a few players missing but our sole focus has to be on the lads who are here and their commitment to the cause for the club and for the supporters is never wavering so we’ll receover as best as we can from the trip (to Portsmouth) and we’ll be fresh and ready to go on Monday. We’ll have a clear mindset as to what we need to do and that will be to play with the same commitment in terms of energy and speed but just play slightly better and hopefully we can do that,” he said.
“Our lads have kept bouncing back from everything that has been thrown at them over the course of the season but in the last few weeks I suppose it has been noticable because we got the results.
“We are desperate to put in a performance that gives us that win at home because it has been a long time coming, but we can only do that by being as aggressive as we can at home and being committed to attack and if we do that then we know we can cause the top teams problems and obviously we’re playing a top team on Monday.
“But we’re just focusing on ourselves and trying to put in a performance like we did in the second half at Portsmouth to give us the best chance of winning on Monday.
“There were positives to take from the second half but understanding why the first half became difficult for us and not ignoring that.
“We need to learn from every situation and we were clear in our gameplan but didn’t quite get it right in the first half. We don’t just go away and think ‘oh, well, it will just happen automatically in the next game’, we understand that we have to get better in all aspects of our game.
“In the second half we did that but the scoreline was kind of gone by then so we’re very conscious we need to produce that high level of skill at all stages of the game when the scoreline is whatever it is.”