Dale told to tap into their anger
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ROBBIE Stockdale was instructing his Rochdale players to channel their frustration in a positive manner as they prepared to take on Salford City last night.
Dale were denied a return to winning ways on Saturday as Swindon scored in time added on to snatch a 2-2 draw at the County ground.
While conceding so late in the day was painful, given Dale’s poor performance in the opening 45 minutes, a muchimproved second half showing meant there were positives to take from the contest.
Ben Gladwin’s half-volley fired Swindon in front during the opening 45 minutes, but Dale responded superbly after the break with George Broadbent and Liam Kelly turning the game on its head before Johnny Williams struck at the death to deny them victory.
The result did, at least, end a run of five successive losses in all competitions.
And ahead of the clash against Salford, Stockdale was calling on his players to maintain belief – and the kind of hard running that underpinned their impressive second half at Swindon.
“I know they are good players but we have to have a bit of belief and when you are on a run like we’ve been on, confidence is low,” said Stockdale. “Confidence is such a massive thing, especially with young players. They will come through the other side, we are learning on the job but we need them to learn quick.
“The feeling that we had at half time (at Swindon) was frustration in many aspects with ourselves, the frustration on 90 minutes was that we didn’t hold on for the three points.
“We’ve got to bottle what we did in that second half, bottle that feeling of anger with ourselves that we didn’t see it through and take it into Tuesday.
“It’s down to me to pick the right team for Tuesday but it’s also down to the players who take to the pitch to start the game like we played in the second half at Swindon.”
Stockdale felt his side showed signs of nerves in the first 45 minutes on Saturday.
“I thought we started okay but I think in the first half we looked a really nervous team in the first half,” he said.
“We’ve obviously got some young players and sometimes they can take you a bit literally, in terms of we recognised that Swindon have a got a really high line, but we looked for that too often and gave the ball away on many occasions. Swindon were very good - they’re a really good team who are on a fantastic run.
“We were really calm at half-time and just reminded the players what we believe in them and that they need to believe in themselves and be a bit more in moments like this. And I thought we were outstanding in the second half. We were really, really good.
“I thought we dominated the game in the second half - we were lucky to [only] be 1-0 [down] in the first half, but I was so proud of them in the second half.
“For where were are at the minute as a team, and to come here and play like that, after the knock of the first half, I thought it was really, really positive for us.
“Obviously, really disappointed to lose the three points at the end, but I can almost gloss over that because of how we responded at half-time. Half-time we were lucky to be in the game, so to come away with a 2-2, even thought it’s frustrating, has got to be a positive.”
And Stockdale said a second half change in mindset brought about the change in performance.
“We changed formation a little bit, so credit to the staff for highlighting areas where we can hurt them, but it was more a change in mindset.
“Football is never going to be easy and there are going to be difficult moments, and we’re in a painful moment at the minute - we’re going through a little bit of hurt.
“[At half-time], it was just really telling the players why I brought them to the club, what I see in them and to show it, and I thought in the second half we did that.”
The Dale boss revealed his disappointment with the data from the recent 1-0 defeat at home against
Crawley – and said the second half at Swindon was a return to the kind of output his side had been achieving during their run of fine form earlier in the season.
“We struggled to get control of the game in the first half but in the second half George Broadbent and Aaron Morley almost dictated the play,” he said. “George has unbelievable physicality, he needs minutes to build that, but he is a powerful player, technically very good.
“I wanted to see more physicality in the team because I was so disappointed with our data after the Crawley game. We need to produce that all the time to have a chance in games.
“If we want to be this forward-thinking, forward-pressing team we have to be able to run. Our better results have come when we’ve hit high figures. It’s always been a key factor with the managers I’ve worked for and it’s no different at this level.”
Having been impressed with the way Abraham Odoh and Kelly performed after coming on from the bench, Stockdale was left disappointed with the performance of the matchday officials after twice attempting to bring on Aidy White to shore things up at the back as the game entered the final stages.
“I know, when I name a team, I’m going to have half a dozen players who think I’m useless – I was a player myself,” he said.
“But what I do expect is when they come on to make an impact and they did that.
“I was really disappointed we couldn’t get our third sub on – we notified the fourth official on two separate occasions he was ready to go on.
“He couldn’t work the board, or it looked like he couldn’t, and the ref’s telling us that the radio went down and the fourth official is saying the ref told him the ball came back into play too quickly to make a substitution. I’m not making excuses but we’d have liked to have made that third substitution both tactically and to get some fresh legs on.
“I had a substitute ready and on two separate occasions when the ball went out of play I couldn’t get him on. That may have helped us in that situation, it may not have. If we are doing our job properly then I expect other people to.”