Under starter’s orders at Dale
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ROBBIE Stockdale will be urging his players to tear out of the traps when they entertain Sutton United today – and break the habit of starting games on the back foot.
In their last two League Two fixtures, at Swindon and Salford City, Dale have been under the cosh during the first half and it’s taken a half time pep talk to ignite the players.
Second half showings have been much better, with Stockdale’s men securing draws at both venues.
Dale have been disappointing in their last two home games, which saw defeats by Oldham and Crawley, and Stockdale is demanding better today.
Assessing the goalless draw at Salford in midweek, he said: “I feel like I’m pressing repeat from the game on Saturday (at Swindon) – first half it was backs against the wall, quality on the ball not good enough. Effort was there but was maybe misdirected against the ball.
“We tweaked a couple of things at half time, kept the same shape but just made people aware of where the threats were coming from and I thought second half we were much better and created some good opportunities. First half we created a couple but the final pass was lacking for the opportunity to score.
“But the positives are it’s another tough away game and we’ve come away with a point and a clean sheet.
“Maybe I need to do my half-time team talk before the game, that might help, eh?
“We constantly wonder how to improve that [the way we start the game]. Again, we’ve got a very young team with inexperienced players and maybe it just takes them a while to work themselves into the game but that’s no excuse for not doing the hard yards, if you like.
“So when you’re not doing well with the ball, make it really difficult to play against you, and I just didn’t feel that we did that in the first half.
“Again, we just tweaked a couple of things [at halftime]. The shape isn’t an issue in the game when you see the second half performance, so we just make sure that we do it better.”
Stockdale started with Liam Kelly and George Broadbent in midfield – but felt compelled to bring Aaron Morley on early in the second half.
“Aaron’s a good player, I just felt he’d played so many minutes I thought it was an evening where George and Liam could start,” he said.
“George has a really bright future but he was on a yellow card and I was worried he might get a second so we made that change.”
On the clean sheet Stockdale continued: “Clean sheets are paramount to me.
“People might see that as a negative as we want to score goals but it gives you a great platform in the game and you can see right at the end there that we’re having shots and chances so one goal could have nicked the three points for us.
“I think, overall, we probably didn’t deserve to win the game, but I thought with our endeavour we certainly deserved the draw.
“Joel Coleman made some really big saves and kept us in the game in the first half, but in the second
‘We have to play well to pick up three points, then we can say we’ve had a good week’
half I was really pleased with how we stood up to the physical challenge. They [Salford] are putting balls in our box, and Jeriel, Sam and Eoghan were superb in dealing with that.
“It’s a point on the road again. I’ve just told the players that’s a steady start to the week and we need to now take it into a home game on Saturday. There will be a bit of expectation on us but we have to handle that and play well to pick up three points there and then we can say that we’ve had a good week.”
Following
Tuesday night’s Emirates FA Cup fourth round qualifying replay between Notts County and Tamworth, it has been confirmed that Dale will face the Magpies in the first round proper.
County were 4-0 winners over the Lambs Meadow Lane. Kairo Mitchell netted a brace, while Kyle Wootton and Frank Vincent were also on the scoresheet for Ian Burchnall’s side.
The tie will be played at the Crown Oil Arena over the weekend of November 5th.
A confirmed date/ admission details will be announced in due course.