Magpies test on the backburner
League One clash against Orient priority before thoughts turn to FA Cup replay
COREY O’keeffe insists Rochdale’s sole focus this weekend will be on beating Leyton Orient in the League One clash at the Crown Oil Arena.
Only then will thoughts turn to the tough prospect of seeing off Notts County at Meadow Lane in Tuesday’s FA Cup first round replay.
The sides drew 1-1 at Spotland when they met last Sunday with O’keeffe’s first half strike cancelled out by Kyle Wootton’s header after the break.
Both teams had chances to win it but in the end a ‘The next league game is the most important, get that out of the way, get a win and then move on to the replay’ draw was a fair reflection of the contest, with both clubs in the hat for Monday’s second round draw which saw them pitted against either Sheffield Wednesday or Plymouth in the next round of the competition.
Should Dale progress and the Owls see off the Pligrims, it would set up a repeat of the fourth round clash between the pair back in 2014, which Wednesday edged 2-1 before a crowd in excess of 8,000 at Spotland.
But O’keeffe and his team-mates won’t be looking beyond the Magpies having witnessed first hand what a good side Ian Burchnall has assembled.
“Everyone had one eye on the second round draw, obviously, because we expect to go to Notts
County and win – but the next league game is the most important now, get that out of the way, get a win and then move on to the replay,” said O’keeffe.
“It will be very tough, they are a decent team. Sometimes you think ‘ah, they’re a different league,’ but they are decent and they showed that on Sunday, they some good football and were hard to break down and that will be the case again at their place.”
So will it be tougher at Meadow Lane?
“Yes and no, because we’ve seen them play now so maybe we can plan off what we have seen,” O’keeffe said. “But it’s at their place so they might have that bit more confidence, you never know
“I thought Notts County were a good side, they brought the game to us and it was a really tough game. It meant we were still in the hat for the next round and we can look forward to the replay.
“Obviously we wanted to win and get the job done, but they are a good side and I think the draw was a fair result and we take it to their place now.
“Maybe we did enough to win but they had chances as well.”
Both Wednesday and Plymouth are well supported teams – but it’s the third round of the competition where things really get interesting and the top-flight clubs come into play.
“Every player wants a big team, so that you can go on the biggest stage and show how good you are,” said O’keeffe.
On a personal level, he’s had a fine start to life at Rochdale – but, like boss Robbie Stockdale, he is still demanding more of himself.
“I think I’ve had an alright start with a couple of goals and a couple of assists, but I want to add more to the team – going forward I would say is my main attribute but also defending well and adding assists and goals,” he said. “(On Sunday) I probably could have had a hattrick on a different day but I’ll take the one!”
Magpies boss Burchnall felt his side missed an opportunity to take advantage of having put Dale on the back foot after levelling the score – but remains confident heading into the replay.
“I feel a little disappointed we didn’t kick on after we scored the equaliser – we had a 15-minute period after scoring where I felt we were really on top,” he said.
“The last ten minutes saw chances both ways but I thought it was a really balanced, two teams who want to play. I really enjoyed the game, I enjoyed what we did and I thought they posed us some problems that we don’t face every week, which was great. I’m looking forward to doing it again.
“They locked on and pressed us really high but we never gave up and we played some really nice stuff, it was a great performance from us.
“We responded well to going a goal down, came out in the second half and really attacked the game.
“The replay will be a difficult game.
“We’ve both learned something about each other now so we’ll take that into the replay at Meadow Lane and go again.”